And its actually more honest,

too. Lets face it,

were all making mistakes

and trying to do

the best we can with

them and prevent them

from happening, but its

easier to relate to a character thats made

mistakes that we have in common with

them. Ive certainly made my share of mistakes,

and I think thats why I made the

movie. I was going through a divorce at the

time, and I wanted to take all that energy,

which was negative energy, and put it

somewhere that I could do something positive

with it. And I dont always do that in my

work, but there are occasions when Ill read

a script that happens to be in a parallel

existence with my own. The two then go

together beautifully, and it becomes almost

like a therapy. That happened with The

Weather Man. It was a real overlay of my life

with the character of Dave Spritz.

The search for who we are inside is an

ongoing quest, isnt it? It should always

keep going, ideally.

Yeah, and it will, until we becomewhats

the right way of saying this? Until weve

overcome it to the point where we can

become masters of our own destiny, if such

a thing is possible.

We become the directors, not the

actors?

[laughs] Yeah, were no longer at the

mercy of the elements, but more in control

of them.

Ever met anybody like that?

No. Have you?

Never. [both laugh] Ive always wanted

to meet The Dalai Lama. I would imagine

hes pretty close to that.

Yeah, thats what Ive heard, too. When he

walks into a room, you feel a different level

of vibration, that hes that guy were talking

about.

Your background is the stuff of Hollywood

lore now: youre the offspring of

what has become one of the most prolific

artistic families in Hollywood history: the

Coppolas. Your father, August Coppola,

was a professor of fine arts, right?

Yeah, comparative literature. He initially

taught at Long Beach State and then

became Dean of Creative Arts at San Francisco

State. Heres the interesting thing

about my father in relation to education: he

was pretty frustrated with the educational

system, so when I went to him in high

school and said, Dad, Im not a good match

for this. This isnt me. I want to go to work. I

want to act. High school isnt working for

me. He actually said, Go ahead and take

the (GED) exam, and get out. So what one

would expect, that he would insist I go to

college, wasnt the case. He encouraged me

to follow my dream and go on.

But hes also the son of an artist.

So he understood that and related to that.

Thank you for pointing that out. It has been

somewhat confusing to me over the years

why he would say thats okay. It was somewhat

important to him that I pass the equivalency,

which I did do. I passed the GED,

but I didnt finish the school year. To set the

record straight, I am not a high school

dropout, as has been said. I have a diploma.

I just wanted to get to work.

Your mother is also an artist, right?

She was a dancer, a modern dance

instructor. She studied at UCLA. I was surrounded

by that kind of frequency, of artistic

energy, that was always around my family.

When Id visit my Uncle Francis, it was

everywhere. Its the kind of thing where, its

madness. Theres a level of it thats so

eccentric and zany, that if youre not careful,

it can catch like wildfire and burn you down.

But at the same time, thats the very stuff

that makes people charismatic and fascinating

to watch. The trick is, how do you keep

a balance with it and not blow yourself out.

Well, the history of art, and particularly

cinema, is littered with the corpses of

people who were the architects of their

own destruction.

In some capacity, whether its drugs, high

speed driving, or just bad behavior, yeah.

This is the very thing that Im thinking about

daily, what were talking about now, and Im

trying to think how to express it without

sounding like Ive got my head in the clouds.

It occurs to me that were on this material

plane here and were born into it, into matter,

and so because were on this level, it

seems like the people who are the most

messed up, and have the largest appetites

for the material are the ones we find the

most charismatic, and the ones we relate to

the most, and they sort of take the experience

of our lives on Earth and tell the stories.

So we go to the theater and we see it,

and we say, Yeah, I know what thats like.

Ive been there. I know what it feels like to

drink myself into oblivion. I know what its

like to want to rob a bank, and so on. But

no one wants to go watch a movie about a

guy like the Dalai Lama. Whos going to

want to go watch that for two hours? As

beautiful as it is, people seem to gravitate

toward those who are on this plane and who

are succumbing to the plane.

Its called drama for a reason. You

know the one word definition of drama,

dont you?

No. What?

Conflict.

Yeah, yeah. Its something that Im really

contemplating right now. If I became perfect,

which I am not [laughs], would anybody want

to see my work?

But would you want to be perfect?

That depends. Its almost like if you want

to get to another level, assuming there is

another level in the afterlife, Id rather be an

eagle than a monkey. But I dont think anybody

wants to watch the eagle. I think they

want to watch the monkey.

Its also comforting, to a certain degree,

to watch people who appear to be far

more ****ed-up than we are, even though

that might not be the case. Most likely,

unconsciously, were relating to that pain

and that dysfunction far more than we

realize. Is that what youre saying?

Yeah, that is what Im saying. The most

charismatic stars and performances: Al Pacino

in Scarface (1983), Jack Nicholson in a

number of movies, Robert De Niro in Raging

Bull (1980), these are people who are really

beleaguered with issues, but you cant take

your eyes off of them. Im not saying the

actors themselves are beleaguered, but the

characters they play are. If you did become

perfect, you would almost have to resacrifice

yourself into matter to be able to be someone

who would be accessible to people.

You would have to become Keir Dullea

in 2001: you would just have to become

light spheres.

Exactly! So the artist, to me, is really the

one who, in a sense, is a character who is

giving [himself] up for the people.

From what Ive read, youve always

known that you were an artist, and have

marched to the beat of your own drummer

from the time you were a small child.

Yeah, thats right.

Did you know you were an actor at

that point, or did you just know you were

different?

I knew I was different. I knew in very

abstract ways that I wanted to be an actor. I

liked what was happening in a boxwhich

was the television setmore than what was

happening in my own family living room. I

wanted to figure out how to get inside the

box. It was mystifying to me, and I thought it

was amazing that there were people inside

this little box. I vowed in my mind that Id

learn how to get inside it.

You were also the victim of bullying

growing up because you were perceived

as being so different.

Yeah, those were rough years.

But dont you also think that when you

dont fit into the norm, it forces you to

develop the part of your brain that forces

you to create, in order to maintain some

kind of stability?

Yeah, its a training ground of sorts. Look

around, this whole place is a training ground.

Theres a million opportunities to not give in,

and not have it break your spirit. Instead, you

can have it be a stepping stone, depending

on how you navigate those waters. Our

minds are so sensitive at that age. But I had

that moment on the football field where

everyone in the school started backing away,

and just slamming me with every other name

you could think of, and I didnt know why it

was happening. Although it turned out it

was because I was wearing a t-shirt that

had The Incredible Hulk on it. [laughs] And

that was it, from then on.

You were it.

Yeah, I was it. I was the guy with the

cooties. But I remember taking a deep

breath, and just kind of gliding out of it, and

going home and sort of breathing and calming

down, and just sort of making a mental

note of it, but not letting it become the wildfire

that were talking about.

Which is what happened at Columbine.

Yeah, which is what happened at

Columbine. You have to have a place which

can funnel the negative energy and turn it

into a positive. A lot of these kids dont have

that. They have no identity, or that becomes

their identity, being an avenging angel, of

sorts. If I could have been there, and had

been some kind of teacher or something, I

would have said, What kind of music do you

like? Okay, you like goth music. You like it to

be really dark and scary. Well, lets see if we

can learn to make it together, to put it all

there. People get mad at kids when they

draw scary pictures, they think its the sign of

some sort of disturbance. Well, actually, its

art. He or she is taking a scary image, getting

it out of their head, putting it onto a piece of

paper, and alleviating the pressure. Theyre

doing something good with it. To take that

away, or not facilitate or educate that is why,

I think, we have these problems.