Q 6

PLAYBOY: We hear you took co-star Steve Guttenberg out and got him drunk and in trouble. He's such a sweet kid. How could you?

Brian Dennehy: No he didn't get drunk. I was drunk. Steve was panic-stricken. We were leaving a bar five minutes from our hotel and I was driving and I had had too much to drink and he insisted that he drive. Of course, I refused, which I was doing a lot of those days. We got into the car, drove away from the bar and a cop pulled us over. [Laughs] Steve, to his credit, jumped out of the car and said, "Officer, he's fine, he's OK. Listen, I'll take the wheel and I'll drive home." The officer, of course, signaled to me to get out of the car. I did and he said, "I want you to come over here and walk this line." I said, "Hey, come on, who are we kidding? I'm drunk as a fucking whatever. You got me, all right." They arrested me, took me in. Reporters were already at the station--someone had called the press. I walked over to them and the questions started. I said, "The cop was right. He did me a favor. He took me off the street. I had no business driving. I was an asshole. I was drunk. I'm not going to contest anything. End of story." And ironically, it was the end of the story. They had no interest in it after that.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: What piece of sartorial advice stays with you?

Brian Dennehy: Tuck in your shirt--from every costume designer I ever worked with. When I did Cocoon we were shooting in St. Petersburg, Florida in August and September, and I was supposed to be an alien who had for some reason assumed this particular human guise. I don't know why the alien didn't pick Robert Redford. He picked me. You knew there was something wrong because he always dressed perfectly and always spoke perfectly. Which meant that I couldn't sweat and couldn't wrinkle. I drove the makeup people and the wardrobe people crazy, it was so fucking hot. And I bitched and moaned every minute of it. But, thank God, my career has never depended upon either my waistline or my sartorial elegance, because I would have been out of it a long time ago.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: You have three daughters. Two are actors, one is psychologist. Who encounters the most problems?

Brian Dennehy: Oh, the actors. My heart goes out to them. They get mad every time I say this, so I'm going to get in trouble again, but I just wish they had picked an easier life. It's a very tough life, especially for women. I did the best I could with my kids. I gave them educations and sent them out, hoping to Christ they wouldn't get burned or burn themselves. My kids are really good kids who like being who they are. But in this fucking business rejection is your daily bread. I watch them deal with it and suffer with it, and it breaks my heart. And there's not much I can do. Every once in a while I can pull a string, but, ultimately, I don't even know if that's a good thing. Maybe I'm making a mistake. Am I just prolonging the agony? And these are talented, trained kids. They know what they're doing. They do good work, and from time to time they get into something and they make a living. But it's frustrating for me because I want them to be secure and happy. The funny thing is, they are happy. That's what really drives me crazy.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: You played John Wayne Gacy, the child abuser and killer. How do you prepare for a role that must turn your stomach?

Brian Dennehy: It does turn your stomach. But you don't worry about the stuff that turns your stomach. To act that part properly you try to create the side of John Wayne Gacy that's like us. He killed at least 30 people in a horrible and revolting way. And that's pretty fucking bad. But what's really scary is that he lived in the suburbs, he had a business, he was involved in politics, he was active in the chamber of commerce. He did all the things everybody else did, year in and year out, while he was doing these other things. What's chilling is that he was not someone who ran off the fucking deep end when he was 19 and killed a bunch of people, like Charlie Starkweather did. In fact, it's easier to play guys like Gacy because they are so extreme.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: How often are you mistaken for Brian Keith and asked about Mr. French and the kids?

Brian Dennehy: It used to be a lot, but he hasn't been around much lately. It's funny, we actually look a little bit alike. We both have this big, jutting jaw, and I used to have blond hair--it's pretty much gray now. And he's just such a wonderful guy--a funny, sweet, gruff character. Or I'm mistaken for Charlie Durning. It makes me wonder why I'm always mistaken for guys 20 years older than me. But I get it all the time: "What ever happened to the girl who played Buffy?" I've taken the greatest pleasure in saying, "She died of a drug overdose."

Q 11

PLAYBOY: You're writing a screenplay of, and plan to direct, Elmore Leonard's Swag. What does Leonard know about life that you want everyone to learn?

Brian Dennehy: He looks at American life from a completely different angle. It's low. It's the reflection of the American dream. It's the guys who have marginal jobs, who drive trucks or work in used-car lots, and every once in a while they're in trouble for armed robbery or boosting something, or they're trying to scheme and hustle, and they're really not smart enough to be major crooks. But this is America, and they want a nice house and a family and everything the same as everybody else. They just don't know how to go about it legitimately. Leonard sees this entire universe out here among us.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: You're a devoted sailor. What is the allure of the open sea?

Brian Dennehy: I've been sailing for 25 years, and what fascinates me most is that the sea doesn't know you're there and it doesn't care. It doesn't care what your tax return was last year. It doesn't care what your gross was. It doesn't care who your agent is. It has no knowledge of you. For most of us who have a solid sense of who the fuck we are and where we fit--we have this phone number and this job and this relationship with these people--to place oneself deliberately in a situation where none of that means a fucking thing is awesome. The decisions you make in the next 15 minutes with that boat, yourself and the crew are going to determine whether or not you survive the next ten or 12 hours. Ninety-nine percent of us never find ourselves in that situation, at least not on purpose. But for me to have 12 days and 2600 miles to go, I'm betting I can beat the weather and the current. I'm betting the fucking mast or sails don't fall down, that I don't make any navigational mistakes and that I'll show up on the other side. I'm saying I'm going to take charge of this tiny little world, which is almost completely cut off. Most of us don't have to, don't want to, can't even find a way.