Q 6

PLAYBOY: Throughout the 1970s you turned down movies that worked out pretty well for other actors, including One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Kramer vs. Kramer, MASH and Apocalypse Now. Were those self-destructive decisions on your part?

James Caan: No, but talking about it is like looking up a dead horse's ass. What do you learn? I recently did a magazine story, and it quoted me as saying, "I was supposed to do Kramer vs. Kramer, and I said, 'This is middle-class bourgeois horseshit. Who's going to go to that?'" I was talking about how stupid my opinion was, like, "Oh yeah, I'm a real genius. I thought Kramer was middle-class bourgeois horseshit." Bob Altman wanted me for MASH, and I wound up doing a piece of crap instead--Rabbit, Run. Milos Forman came to me three or four times with Cuckoo's Nest, and my opinion, which was wrong, was that it wasn't visual enough. I wouldn't have been as good as Jack Nicholson, who was absolutely brilliant, as was Dustin Hoffman, who's a good friend, in Kramer vs. Kramer.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: The rumor was that you almost played Michael Corleone in The Godfather, the role that put Al Pacino on the map. How would your life be different today if you had?

James Caan: I don't think it would have been different at all, except I probably would have had a lot more money. I was close to Francis Ford Coppola well before The Godfather, from when I did a movie with him in the late 1960s, The Rain People. At the time of The Godfather he was the best writer, the best director. He knew everything about cinematography. He knew actors. When Robert Evans, the head of Paramount then, told me they wanted Costa-Gavras to direct, I said, "Francis is the guy, because he's a Mediterranean Italian, not a New York Italian," and I think that's basically what made that picture so successful. You accepted everything those guys did because it was for the sake of the family. Of course, the geniuses who now say, "Oh, I put that picture together," are lying. They were the same people who told Francis, "If you mention Brando's name again, you're fired," and who said about Pacino, "We don't ever want to see that kid." So they spent $420,000 on screen tests, but Francis had it all thought out and had the cast he wanted: Duvall, Brando, Pacino--who nobody knew--and me as Sonny. He wanted Sonny to be an Americanized version, a hothead, a guy who didn't have that same kind of blood coursing through his veins, whereas Al was the typical Sicilian-looking, dark-haired, dark-skinned guy. Even when they came to me about playing Michael I knew that wasn't what Francis wanted, so I didn't want it.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: Most people know you for your big movies--The Godfather, Misery--but you've done great work in films that few have seen, such as the 1981 Michael Mann thriller Thief and, more recently, Dogville. How do you come to terms with that?

James Caan: It's funny, because Scott called me this morning and said, "Dad, I'm not going to be an actor anymore. I'm going to direct or something." When I asked why, he said, "I've been watching Thief for three days. It's mind-blowing. It should be the bible for any actor who wants to try something outside himself." There can't be a greater gift than that, getting praise from my son. Thief was done when Mann was great, before he went off on his own goddamn tangent. What I really cherish is when friends and fellow actors look up to me and ask for my advice. I wouldn't trade that for anything. I've worked with some pretty amazing younger actors--Benicio Del Toro and guys like that--so when they look up to me, that's just a wonderful feeling.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: Shortly after you started making movies, in the 1960s, you co-starred in the Western El Dorado with movie giants John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. How did they treat you?

James Caan: Mitchum was just a great guy, a fucking great character and a very underrated actor. He could have done anything. Wayne was a good guy too--tough but like a kid when you got to know him. I definitely didn't ask him for any acting advice. I don't think John Wayne would do well in Hollywood today, although he was a great personality. I guess if he were a young man today he'd be in that action-hero class. I got more from watching Brando during The Godfather than I would have gotten from anybody spouting advice. He was the guy, the guru of the acting world, without a doubt. Anybody who says different is full of shit. Richard Harris, God bless him, used to criticize Brando, but when I asked, "Then why the fuck do you spend your life imitating him?" he couldn't say anything.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: You'd been married three times before, but your current marriage has lasted nine years, which is a record for you. Does keeping it zipped come any easier to you now?

James Caan: Fidelity has become easy for me because I had the other side for quite a while. I had a great time. I was never a pig about it. I never slept with anybody I worked with. Wait, that's not true. I did--but with all my 75 pictures, I had to think about it, didn't I? Hopefully, I treated all the girls I was with respectfully. It's very different now. Sure, I take a little Viagra now every day but just so I don't piss on my shoes [laughs]. Actually, I tried Viagra once, of course. Unfortunately, only the maid was home, and I didn't need it for her [laughs again]. The point is, if there's somebody else I really want to sleep with right now, she'd better be a better and nicer-looking person than my wife. And if she is, then I need a divorce.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Was there any woman you really wanted but couldn't have?

James Caan: Sophia Loren. I met her when she was 60 or something. It was beyond any dream and probably one of the greatest compliments of my life when she was asked about her favorite actors and she mentioned me. When I saw her, oh, had she grown older gracefully. She's just beautiful. You can see that passion in her.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: Some of your fantastic-looking female co-stars on Las Vegas--Nikki Cox and Vanessa Marcil, among others--have been quoted in interviews saying you're a sexy guy. How does that feel for you at the age of 65?

James Caan: They're just being nice. Now, Josh Duhamel, who also stars on the show, is hot. The girls are all really sweet, talented, nice and beautiful, and I love every one of them. I'd much rather wake up next to them than next to Brando. Listen, if I were young enough, none of them would stand a chance. But I'd have to take all of them or none. I'm afraid that's the deal.