Q 13

PLAYBOY: You were probably in more Disney pictures than Dean Jones and Joe Flynn combined. Assess Walt Disney's chances for survival as a studio head if he were alive today.

Kurt Russell: He'd be the most successful filmmaker today, simply because he was a genius. He was able to stay ten, 15 years ahead of his time. Sure, they don't make Disney's kind of picture anymore. The problem is that they don't. Can you tell me that Mary Poppins wouldn't succeed today? It would probably be this year's best picture, because if he made Mary Poppins today, Disney would again be 20 years ahead of his time without losing that feeling. He was absolutely great at honest emotion. He had that knack. I don't know if that meant he was in touch with the public. I think he was just in touch with his own brain. That was all that mattered.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: Which of Disney's cartoon characters would you like to be for a day?

Kurt Russell: Peter Pan. I love his outlook on life. I love the world he lives in. It's one of tremendous adventure and excitement. I love that he's going to see it for as long as he can. He doesn't want to grow up, and he's never going to. [Laughs] My life is a lot different from Peter Pan's. I wanted to grow up. I wanted to fall in love and have a family, and I wanted to be the father of that family. I had to be big so I could hit the ball out of the park.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: Which big-league manager would you rather have to dinner: Billy Martin or Tommy Lasorda?

Kurt Russell: Billy Martin. I am not enamored of false rah-rah. I like someone who will fight, cheat, scratch, do anything to win--without getting caught. And when you do get caught, own up. Martin personifies that, even if he's playing somewhat of a caricature of himself these days. He keeps coming back.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Have you ever wanted to portray a Kennedy?

Kurt Russell: Jack Kennedy is a well-rounded character suitable for a movie, and I've been approached about playing him or Bobby a number of times. But on the whole, the Kennedys do not fascinate me. Let's face it, though: There is a fascination with them, because they are like our own royalty. I'm just not much for royalty. The Kennedys are just people, and one of them was President. And he was killed. America has a fascination with the people we kill. But maybe it's just a feeling of guilt around the country.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: You've done a number of violent films, such as Escape from New York, The Thing and the Charles Whitman story, The Deadly Tower. Is America unnaturally fascinated with violence? Are critics of violence in film and on television just wasting their time?

Kurt Russell: Not really. We're normally violent because the population is growing. If you put enough rats in a cage, things start getting tough. It's just that some of us are more violent than others. When I'm in the city for a long time, I get hyped up and take things more to the extreme than when I'm comfortable in Colorado.

Critics are totally wasting their time. It should be explained to children early that films and TV are not real life. They're fakes, simply phonies. When I was seven, we played Robin Hood with a plank over an inflatable pool. When one of us fell into the water, we poured catsup over him. We played out our fantasies. We wanted it to look like blood, but we didn't think it was blood. We knew it was catsup. That's just what the movies are, and cartoons are an extension of that. If you want to censor that sort of thing in films and on TV, then you have to do the same for books, art, radio, plays.... The point is that this stuff belongs on TV and in the movies. That's where you can see fantasy before your eyes--someone else's fantasy--and understand that it's not real. In real life, Wile E. Coyote gets up, wanders off and dies. Most of the time, he doesn't even get up.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: What should young boys learn from their fathers?

Kurt Russell: They should learn the advantages, disadvantages and good and bad qualities of becoming a man, mixed in with all the situations in life one might have to handle. My father said some things that have stuck and that gave me an outlook on life that I appreciate--because I enjoy life. He said, "Don't respect your elders as much as somebody who deserves your respect." Also "Never walk in a door that you can't walk out of." And "If you're getting paid a man's salary, do a man's job." Finally, "If you don't do exactly what you want to do, you won't be happy." Most people probably think things are stacked against the last idea. But, amazingly, it's the easiest.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: Most actors use an interview for publicity or as a soapbox for a favorite issue. Is there a reason beyond those two that you're here?

Kurt Russell: [Smiles wickedly] I like to lie in interviews. Sometimes I'll just blatantly lie, because a lot of lies are going to appear anyway, so why not make some of them up myself? Two years later, I'll be talking with someone who will say, "You once said..." and I'll say, "No, I didn't." Ten minutes later, he'll say, "Well, you said..." and I'll say, "Yes, I did, but I lied." I don't mind giving the interview a feeling of untruth, of its sort of being a piece of flack that somebody will read in a minute and a half on the toilet, that doesn't make much difference. The media in large part deserve that kind of bullshit, because they dish it out. So why not have fun with them? If I take it seriously and then read things that are not true, it's going to hurt. The only thing I can do is fight back. I lie for it to be entertaining when I read it. And I hope that by the time I'm 50 years old, there will be such a conglomeration of impossible facts that it's impossible to put them together and the press just gives up. I don't really care to have people know me unless I meet them and I want them to get to know me.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: Have you lied to us?

Kurt Russell: [Shrugs] Probably. I probably have. I honestly don't remember. You'd have to go through it. [Pauses] I don't think I've lied to you. But it really doesn't make any difference.