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We're Hangin' With..... PAUL WALKER by: Lynn B.
Paul, of the ice-blue eyes, was casual, wearing a t-shirt from a fave Austin, Texas restaurant, for our chat in L.A. about his film, blue collar family beginnings, upcoming projects, love of action, and worries about our environment and the future. AGW: What time period would you like to go back to? Paul:
It's this one for me. I really like the medieval period. It seems the
easy way out. But from the time I was a little kid, it always seemed one
of the most fascinating periods to me. As I got older, and going to college,
I took a poly/sci class. It was on the history of the Far East and focused
on Japan and China and I loved feudal Japan, the last Samurai, like Kurosawa
stuff. That's what I like-Shogun and Samurai. That's my favorite. [Humm,
bet he'd love to play the Tom Cruise role in The Last Samurai!] Paul: Yeah. I choreographed the fight sequences, which really weren't that involved. I don't want to bad-mouth anybody, but I don't like movies when they have the big exchanges and punches and everything wide and outside. Even the little scrape I had with Tyrese in 2 Fast 2 Furious, I did the choreography. AGW: So then do you want to be more of an action hero? Paul:
I just think those are my strengths. That's the way I was raised. My father
was a prizefighter. My grandfather ended up a contractor but he fought
amateur. My dad was four times Golden Gloves [champion]. My grandfather
fought for the middleweight championship of the world twice at Madison
Square Garden so I grew up boxing. My family's blue collar. I grew up
roofing and framing and doing electrical and that sort of thing. For my
dad, the whole martial arts thing was important because he it's something
he wishes he'd gotten into, but his parents didn't have any money. From
the time I was in third grade I started training in karate and then I
went on to train in kung fu, tae kwon do and did some judo. As of late
I've been doing mixed martial arts. I have some training in Brazilian
jujitsu. I love that stuff. Paul: They were over the moon. I look at it now and can see that my parents were disappointed when I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. I worked all the time as a child, but I wanted to be normal and play sports and I had a girlfriend. My parents didn't have any money. Everything [college] was going to be grants and loans for me. I stepped back and started working construction. I worked for UPS for a while. I worked for a couple surf shops. I was living out of a garage at a friend's house in Pasadena and I started auditioning again. My agent from when I was a child tracked me down. He was casting for this episode of "Touched By An Angel". I went in and read for it and got the job. He said you should consider auditioning again because I think you'd be working all the time. And within one month I got Pleasantville. I've been working ever since. AGW: Do you still do much surfing? Paul:
Not as much as I used to. I've been surfing my whole life and I'll continue
to do it. Paul: No. They came at me for that. The thing of that is: I would have been the quarterback. (non-surfing guy). I need to be a surfer. AGW: You'll be deep sea diving in your next movie Into the Blue. Tell us about it: ever dived before? Paul: A lot of free diving. I don't like having all the equipment on me. I grew up spear fishing. I've lived here in California my whole life. I can hold my breath for a real long time. I didn't see any advantage of having a tank and plus, the bubbles scare the fish away. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to be in the element. I'm working with Jessica Alba, who in my opinion, is one of the most unbelievable women alive to look at. AGW: What would you give her on a scale of 1-10? Paul:
[grinning] She's a 10. She's really sweet and we're getting along real
well. I'm looking forward to working with her. Paul: I think the future's scary so I try not to think about the future too much to be honest with you. I only know in 40 years we're going to double the world's current population if we continue the course we're on. That's a scary thought. AGW: As a dad [to 5-year-old Meadow], do things that are going on in the world now scare you? Paul:
I have this horrible recurring dream about the future. A lot of it is
my background. I studied marine biology. When it comes the status of mother
nature and pollutants and hacking down rainforests, I'm really sensitive
to that stuff.
AGW: So, do you turn off the water when you brush your teeth? Paul: Yeah. And my showers are like two minutes. I'm in and out. That's my biggest pet peeve. I can't stand people that take 20-30 minute showers. That started with my dad. My father has a military background-it's like in and out. What are you doing in there? I do it for different reasons. AGW: Did studying science help with your role in Timeline? Paul: No. This is mainly archeology. The science-fiction aspect of it; wormholes and that sort of thing, my mind doesn't really work that way. That doesn't fascinate me so much. When it comes to science fiction, I like Star Wars. I love The Matrix. AGW: Would you want to go back to school and study science? Paul: I think about it all the time. I'm going to do this thing for Discovery Channel in December where they just recently found this Japanese submarine from World War II near Midway. We're going to bring it up to the surface. I'm excited. That's the kind of opportunity that this is granting me that I really like. I've been in talks with Jacques Cousteau's son. He has a society and foundation in Santa Barbara and I'll be doing some work with them in the not too distant future. AGW: There were changes from the Timeline book to the movie. What are some of the good changes? Paul: We had to speed things up. The movie sings once we get back to the medieval period. The professor and Chris [Paul's character] originally didn't have the father-son relationship. It makes a lot more sense now. I'm going. 'He's my dad'. I understand that. To me, that made all the sense in the world. We gotta expedite this. We gotta get you back to the past. That's when the movie starts going. Why would Chris put his life on the line to get on that platform? Well, if it's his dad, we understand. AGW: Are they any movies your daughter has seen? Paul: She finally saw a movie I was in-she saw 2 Fast 2 Furious. They have movie night on Oahu on a big screen outside on Waikiki beach. You can go and set up your barbecues. She went to see Princess Diaries one Friday night and they announced the next week's film, 2 Fast 2 Furious. And she said, that's my daddy's movie, I want to see that. So they went back and saw it. AGW: How did she react? Paul: Her mother (Rebecca) said she was laughing the whole time. She couldn't believe it. Because she watching her dad, not the movie. AGW: So she knows what you do? Paul:
She knows now. She just turned five, and her friends are aware (of Paul
being an actor). It comes from her friends' parents. Paul:
Yeah. It sucks. That's the tradeoff. It's a bummer sometimes. I'm in international
business. That's what I feel like. Fifty percent I'm acting; fifty percent
I'm an international businessman. I sympathize with those guys. I can
only imagine what it's like for the wives and the kids.
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Hottie
Paul Walker of Fast and Furious fame, is stuck in medieval France and
can't wait to get "Back to the Future" in his new time travel
actioner Timeline based upon the Michael Crichton novel. No hot cars in
this film. The actor has exchanged his wheels for archeologist tools and
chain mail. He was interested in playing the more swashbuckling character
in the film; a role given to studmuffin Gerard Butler, but was happy in
a reluctant hero role as actress Frances O'Connor's main knightly dude.
Besides, he got to choreograph the fight scenes! 
Paul:
Just simple things. I'm a walking contradiction because I like to race
cars and racecars pollute like nothing else. I'm aware of that. But, for
instance, the lights are always off in my house. I never run electricity
that I don't need to. When you do this (gets up and flips the light switch),
it's not magic. It's coming from something. We're burning fossil fuels
right now. When I see a light on, I think, Oh sxxx. There's smoke going
out in the world now because of me. I don't like that. On the way out
of your house, you should pull you key out and all the lights shut off.
There are systems that recirculate the water so opposed to having to turn
on the tap and wait for it to heat up, it's instantly hot. (snaps fingers)
It's little things like that that.