Film Review magazine, Yearbook 1996/97

As labels go, 'Mr. Nice Guy' is not such a bad one, yet Bill Pullman has heard it so often that even his smile wavers and his eyes go heavenwards when it is repeated one more time. In London to promote his latest film, Independence Day, the actor has been around long enough not to be fooled by the plaudits coming his way at the moment, and the long-awaited personal success that the film has finally brought.

Indeed he smiles at the irony of being Hollywood's latest overnight success, ten years after making his movie debut in Ruthless People, playing an extortionist memorably dubbed 'the stupidest man on Earth'. A decade on he is playing the President of the US, leading the forces of a ravaged humanity into battle with a deadly alien foe.

"Some people say that they're really the same part," Pullman laughs. In his time he has played the bad guy, the best friend, the doomed husband and the spurned fianci in a career that has more often than not seen him steal scenes from under the noses of more established stars.

After racking up impressive supporting performances in such films as Sommersby, The Last Seduction and Sleepless in Seattle he returned to playing the sympathetic lead roles last year in Casper and While You Were Sleeping. So whatever the fickle Hollywood machine might throw up from now on, the 42 year old actor can appreciate the good times while they last. And he can even bear to be described endlessly as Mr Nice Guy, an easy handle but not a strictly accurate one -- or so he insists.

"I have to laugh when friends call and say " 'What's all this Mr Nice Guy stuff?' " he explains, "because the truth is that I could just self destruct like anybody else. I've had my periods, but it's a question of trying to keep from doing those things. It's important to have my family behind me, but anyone with a family knows that it's not always idyllic. You hve your problems, your bad days, days when you just want to get drunk. But as labels go I guess it's not such a bad one to have.

"The problem is they try to pigeonhole you in this business. They say to me, 'You never get the girl, like in While You Were Sleeping or League of Their Own', but who cares? I remember a German reporter saying to me: 'Aren't you ashamed playing all these good guys who are losers? Doesn't that give good guys a bad name?'

"He was actually angry at me. I said: 'Well what's your profession?' I'm not that guy, I'm an actor playing that guy. For me the guy that doesn't get the girl in Sleepless in Seattle is a guy that really exists. There are a lot of guys who don't get the girl, and the pain and the loss of that is more interesting to me. But that's a bad thing for some people."

Strongly protective of his wife Tamara and their young family, Pullman recognizes their contribution to keeping him off the Hollywood roller-coaster and on the straight and narrow. And if he ever falls into the trap of believing his own publicity, especially with his new movie charging towards the title of biggest box-office hit of all time. If he does then his kids are always likely to pull him back down to size.

"After the movie came out in America I had already made plans to go to my home town in western New York state. I didn't think too much about it, and I had my family with me, but I went into the grocery store to get some stuff quickly and I found I couldn't get out. Afterwards we had to go to this vineyard, and I'd warned the family that it might be even worse, but it turned out nice and quiet. Jack said to me: 'This hasn't been crazy.' I asked him what he meant and he said, 'You said this was going to be crazy, but it's not.'

"You know how children can say things that don't have a lot of spin on them, but leave something open for a lot of interpretations," he explains. "So then I start wondering if he's disappointed. Is he saying that's a good thing or a bad thing?" Always the actor, with the requisite actor's sensitivity, Bill Pullman laughs again.

Nice guy, really.

-- Anwar Brett

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