Interview with Michael Clarke Duncan

Kingpin originated as Spider-Man’s arch enemy, is there any talk of you doing or being involved in the next Spiderman movie?

MCD: I was talking to one of the FOX executives at the Broadcast film critic’s award just last week, we were at the same table and I said “You know Kingpin is the enemy of Spiderman and Daredevil and if Fox and who every did Spiderman [Columbia Pictures] can come together and put Daredevil and Spiderman” I know, I know, it’s like getting two people together nah, nah, nah. But it would be wonderful if they can do that and just split it right down the middle. We can go half and half, what ever we make we split, and he [executive] said “I don’t know if we can really do that” I said “It’s simple, they get Tobey Maguire, they pay him whatever, you get Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner and pay them…It’s split right down the middle.” And I think it would be wonderful if they can do that, that would be SO BIG, and I would love to be a part of that, IF they ever did it.

You think Stan Lee would go for that?

MCD: Yeah, because on the cartoons they did it. In the cartoons Spideman and Daredevil had a fight and it was a very entertaining fight [laughs] and Kingpin was the center piece of it, he kind of agitated both of them cause he doesn’t like both of them so it was kind of cool. I hope they do that I really do.

Was it much of a transition to play a comic book character?

MCD: No, you know what the thing was, they told me I can eat whatever I want, they wanted me to gain weight and work out. NOW how many people are going to pay you a large sum of money and say “We want you to get big, just big and just work-out very little and we are going to pay you.” And I didn’t have 3 hours of make-up it was just me. So when the director [Mark Steven Johnson] told me that, I said “Okay let me get this straight, I get to eat, gain weight, and work-out very little and you are going to pay me?” and he said “YES” and I said “I’m in.” [Laughs] But I was worried about one thing, the character [KINGPIN] is white in the comic books and I follow Daredevil comic books and that was my main concern, because you have people who follow these comic books to the tee and they want to see that, they don’t want any variations from the comic books. But Mark [the director] told me that I was the BEST actor for the job, and when he said that and he said that the people at Fox where behind him, I just went in there and did what I thought was best and hopefully everybody will like it.

How was it to work with Jennifer Garner?

MCD: NOW she is really good. I have to go on the record saying that. I told her…I said “I’ve seen that little ALIAS show [laughs] and you don’t do all those stunts, I know the camera angle, these tricks and that.” She said “No Mike, I really do all those stunts” and I said “NO, you’re not that good, you may be good but you ain’t that good.” So they [Affleck and Garner] were doing a scene and she said “I’m gonna run and kick off that wall and I’m gonna flip.” I said “you do that, I’m doing it. I’ll do mine in a bikini too okay.” The camera starts rolling, she took one leg and flipped and it’s on the trailer, she flipped off this wall and I was like…I bowed downed to her after that I said “you know what? You are the shit, YOU ARE THE SHIT. I would never mess with you anymore on this set; whatever you need you come to me and I will retrieve it for you.” [Laughs] And for the rest of the set I did not tease Jennifer Garner. She’s good; she’s really good.

What about Colin Farrell?

MCD: Now Colin is crazy, we had some scenes together and it was just…He brought so much energy, because you know if you had a scene with another actor you kind of what to feel each other out. And I have to see how you are going to this scene and therefore I feed of you and you feed of me. Colin just went in and started acting crazy, so he made me act crazy. And at the end of our scene we just both started laughing real hard and we would try to see who could out laugh the other person. Colin is wonderful and he is going to be in PHONE BOOTH, I don’t know why I’m plugging his movie.[Laughs] But anyway he’s a good actor and he really brought a lot to Daredevil, and playing Bullseye I can’t see anybody else doing that.

Did you have any physical training?

MCD: Nah, this [holds up his cookie] is the only physical training I did. Eating cookies, going to pancake houses, cooking steaks late a night and waking up at 2:30 to eat a bag of potato chips with hot sauce. [Laughs] But actually we had to do a couple of fight scenes in the movie and Daredevil and myself have a big fight scene near the end. I was asking Ben [Affleck] why don’t we go over the fight scene so we’ll know exactly what the moves are. So I’m going very slow with Ben, I’m like “Let’s go through this really slow”, cause Ben is not the most agile person in the world to me. We’re going slow and he has a lead pipe, and I said “You want to use the lead pipe or do you want to use the regular one” and Ben’s like “I’ll use the led pipe since we’re just going slow.” So we’re rehearsing and he is suppose to come across with the led pipe, and he’s coming down with the led pipe, so I’m thinking he’s going to slow down when all of a sudden WAM!! And he hits me below my eye, I said “WHAT THE…Didn’t I just say we were walking through this!!!” Ben’s like “Michael I’m so sorry, I’m sorry” and I said “You know what? I’m about to kick Daredevil’s behind right here and right now.” The Director came down and said, “What just happened?” I told him no explanation and told him “Get the stunt guy in here”; “Ben you’re cool but me and you’re stunt guy can do this a lot better and a lot quicker than me and you can.” So a lot of the times Ben’s stunt double came in because Ben’s kind of clumsy. He may be the world’s sexiest man but there a lot you don’t know okay. [Laughs]

Did you have to read for KINGPIN?

MCD: You know what? I didn’t have to read for it, they offered it to me. And like I said in the beginning I was worried about the character, the change of color because I know how people stick to the comic books. But Mark Steve Johnson just sat me down and we had lunch for the like 3 hours and we talked about the possibilities of me doing this. And the more he talked the more he convinced me, I really wanted to be involved in it after the first half-hour talking with him. I just wanted to me him look like a genius; I did not want to make him look like he chose the wrong actor for this role. Once I got immersed in the role and got to wear those nice suits everyday, no 3-½ hour make-up like on PLANET OF THE APES. [Laughs] I got to walk around with a cane, you know? Get to inside a Mercedes Benz Limo that was fantastic.

Did you base your character on the screenplay or on the comic book itself?

MCD: You know what? I based it mostly on the comic book, cause the comic book went into it in more detail. When you read the Daredevil comic books they get really detailed about every character in there. And actually KINGPIN had a wife that was killed years ago before all of this happened, so I asked Mark “Now who’s playing the wife part? I know in the comic books he had a very beautiful wife, like Halle Berry, Janet Jackson or somebody.” Mark’s like “We’re past that.” [Laughs]

What’s your best comic book besides DAREDEVIL, movie?

MCD: They haven’t done it yet, GREEN LANTERN. I love Green Lantern, I don’t know how they can do that, but I love the Batman movies and I really love SUPERMAN, and I know there talking about making another SUPERMAN movie. But it’s just going to be really interesting to see who is going to play SUPERMAN, cause Christopher Reeve you know? He was Superman; nobody played him well but him. So in our minds that’s all we see and who ever is going to play that role has to be really good and really just dynamic to take our minds away from Christopher Reeve because he WAS Superman.

Do you think they should go with an unknown?

MCD: Yeah, it might be. Then we wont have that visual already of this person who did that movie you know? It’s just like SCARFACE, no matter what Al Pacino does, I see him as Tony Montana. So it has to be somebody fresh that we’ve never seen before.

Do you think that the movie does DAREDEVIL justice?

MCD: From what I saw, I think it really does. And the thing is that people have to remember Ben Affleck is going to bring so much to this movie. When I first heard that he was going to be the DARDEVIL, I was like “Not the Daredevil” [Laughs] come on. But then when I saw him in the tight leather suit, I was like “Okay Michael don’t laugh, don’t laugh, don’t laugh” and then I looked at him and said “Man I’m sorry you’re just not the Daredevil, I’m sorry.”[Laughing hysterical] But actually he did so well in the movie he’s just…It’s just cause I know him that I joke with him, that’s my boy, I know him, I look at him in a totally different way from how you look at him. Like I don’t see him as the world’s sexiest human being [Hysterical laughing] I just don’t think that out of all the men in world he’s the sexiest, but hey he got voted that and that’s a cool thing. That just makes me laugh. But all joking a side he actually brought so much to that character, he played it so well, and there’s a chemistry between him and Jennifer Garner, its really magical what they did. He brought a lot to Daredevil.

Are you signed up to do sequels?

MCD: I signed a two picture deal with Fox for Daredevil.

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