Q 13

PLAYBOY: We know you don't have to be weird to make weird movies. But would it help?

Brian De Palma: It's a trap people always fall into. But I'm not paranoid. I don't own telescopes. I walk the city streets without feeling I'm being followed. Quite the contrary; after all the research I did in pornography, I couldn't have been more uninterested. I absorb all the information I need to make a movie; then I'm satiated with it. I've seen it and done it and worked it out and it's over.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Would it be out of line to believe the rumors that some of Al Pacino's coke in Scarface was the real thing?

Brian De Palma: Absolutely out of line. Pacino's very straight. The idea that you have to be drunk to play a drunk went out at the turn of the century. Had the coke been real, the whole budget of that movie would have been on his table at the end. No, it was lactose, one of the popular cuts. It makes you sneeze a lot. Al didn't like it. It stuffed up his nose and he had to keep blowing it after scenes.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Since you can't give out an Oscar, who gets a Brian award?

Brian De Palma: The King of Comedy, about the best film made over the past few years. It's very difficult to surprise me, but Marty Scorcese found an ingenious way to depict uncommercial material. And Robert De Niro's portrayal of such a compellingly unlikable character is fabulously realized and integrated, a seamless work of art. For Marty, it was a cohesive, audacious effort.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Defend your critics.

Brian De Palma: It's always nice to have someone understand what I'm trying to do, and it's fascinating to see where people get thrown off: The rise of Scarface was interesting but the downfall dull -- stuff like that. The best critics can make me aware of things in my work, but they've followed me for years and I know where they are coming from. I don't keep up with them socially, but I know many well enough to call on the phone and ask for support, like when I'm in trouble with the ratings board. For Scarface, I called Roger Ebert; I spoke with The New York Times; I would have called Pauline Kael, but she was sick and I didn't want to get her involved. I wouldn't say that I got perverse satisfaction from the hostility of the others. I've been hit so often that it just doesn't have much effect anymore. It did disturb me when critics attacked my ex-wife, Nancy Allen, for the mere fact that she was my wife and had appeared in several of my movies. We worked quite well together, but the downside was the talk about her being in the films because she was the director's wife. You just have to deal with it; it's unfair, but what else is new?

Q 17

PLAYBOY: What's the most hostile attack you encounter from feminists?

Brian De Palma: That I'm a women hater, obsessed with violence and dirty sex, that type of thing. I tell them I make the movies I want to make, that I like working with women and that my movies have strong women protagonists. As for violence, it makes no difference if you take body counts whether you're killing men or women in movies. Since Scarface, my body count for women is minuscule compared with that for men. Basically, feminists don't use the word psychopath. Usually, they call me sick. I don't try to convince that I'm not a bad guy. I tell them, "It's a free world; don't buy a ticket."

Q 18

PLAYBOY: What do you like most and least about film making?

Brian De Palma: I like the deal making -- the capitalist system in perfect formation, wrestling around dollars. I like thinking things up, structuring characters, relationships, cinematic design. That I can wake up in the morning and still have ideas to put together in a movie is more than anyone can ask of the system. I like writing early -- from six a.m. -- in my office. Then I like to walk around, physically locating the movie in specific places. The worst parts are the actual making of the movie and when it's released. That's when you've got the most pressure. My favorite period is when I'm thinking about the movies I'm going to make and refining and editing the movie I've just made. That is paradise for this director. As a matter of fact, my editing office for Body Double was right across the street from the Pussycat Cinema on Broadway.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: What are you serving up next?

Brian De Palma: I'm very interested in the media, TV in particular. There's a murder in the next movie, and it will definitely be a De Palma film. It's about someone who becomes a celebrity after the murder -- and his motivation to become famous at any cost. It's a little like King of Comedy and like John Hinckley -- writing those letters to Jodie Foster to tell her how important his love is.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: Forgive us, we have to ask. Is it hard to assure a woman who's seen Dressed that it's safe to take a shower in your apartment?

Brian De Palma: I don't have too many problems in that area. The shower curtain's opaque and the sharpest object in the bathroom happens to be my toothbrush.