![]() ![]() Walken lives-it’s an estate, really, with a detached guesthouse and outdoor pool, plus several private acres. Home is actually the wrong word to describe where Mr. There is no such detail about Christopher Walken I can give you, because Christopher Walken is not like us, which becomes immediately obvious as soon as I set foot in his Connecticut home. All these little details added in to serve the dual purpose of sharing an intimate moment in the rarefied world of fame, while reassuring you that even cover-worthy men and women have to put their pants on one leg at a time. R ead a profile of an A-list celebrity and you can usually find the through-line to the effect of “Stars: They’re just like us!” Kate Winslet eating a burger. ![]() Walken nods his head, “kind of makes sense.” Walken this way Combined with that, you were identified with somebody who has a lot of problems.” “Which…” Mr. And right after that, you shoot yourself in the head in The Deer Hunter. One was Annie Hall, where you were a suicidal driver. The first time you were in the movies, you did two things back to back. The friend explained, “Oh, it’s really very simple. The two were puzzling it out once, how he, Chris Walken-a musical theater geek who made his Broadway debut at age 20, opposite Liza Minnelli in Best Foot Forward- had gotten pegged as a bad guy. He has a theory about that, courtesy of a friend. “I play lots of troubled people,” he acknowledged. Walken’s singular (and sometimes sinister) performances. His early, scene-stealing moments onscreen, in fact, helped set the tone for the rest of Mr. Walken made a career on appearances, rather than roles. Long before the celebrity cameo was in vogue, Mr. Walken’s career onscreen-with more than 100 film credits to speak of-has been defined by playing enigmatic characters who happen to resemble no one so much as Christopher Walken. But I think it might have to do with growing up around people who spoke English as a second language.” Mr. “People tell me I end a sentence before it’s finished,” he said, his bright blue gaze direct in a way that his words are not. After all, something may always get lost in translation. He’s… careful with his speech, at once casual and over-precise: at a loss for words, or maybe conveying a bigger idea in the space where they normally appear. If anything, his words seem almost too elocuted, the pauses allowing us to project something withheld, left unspoken in the black box of his mind. Walken doesn’t have the accent of an immigrant. I think maybe I talked that way.” On the weekend, he worked at his father’s bakery. I think I grew up listening to people who spoke English in a kind of broken way. Lots of Greek, Italian, Polish, German, Yiddish. “The neighborhood itself, you didn’t hear a lot of English. Walken’s mother was Scottish and his father was German both Christopher and his brothers were native New Yorkers, born and raised in Queens, where they would take the elevated train over to the city to audition for Sid Caesar’s Hour. And so did all the people that they knew, and all the people who worked in my father’s bakery.” Mr. Both my parents had accents, European accents they were pretty strong. “It has to do I think with where I come from in the city, and also the neighborhood. Walken told me in March, sitting in the solarium of the Connecticut estate he shares with his wife, former Sopranos casting director Georgianne Leigh Walken. “I guess I do have a particular way of speaking,” Mr. You know…the trailing off in the middle…without ever missing a beat…it’s hard to mistake. Along with Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino, Christopher Walken is one of those instantly recognizable impersonations, even when done poorly. Not much more is needed-even without that title card, we would have known who Mr. His tongue absently poking out to the top of his lip, his left hand dug deep in his pocket while the other rises and falls at chest level, like a jazz crooner keeping time with the drums. “Wow…” he enunciates mildly, elongating the vowel. Marquand tilting his head quizzically and staring at something offscreen. Marquand’s impressions is one of his shortest: the title card reads, “Christopher Walken realizes he’s on a Jumbotron.” The screen flashes to Mr. Marquand-who once played Paul Newman on an episode of Mad Men -has that uncanny mimic’s knack not just for nailing the way famous celebrities sound, but, as evidenced in the small absurdities of banal activities-“Michael Caine tries to open a jar for someone,” “Harrison Ford loses a sneeze,” “Al Pacino misses a straw with his mouth,” etc.-how they fill the space around their words. As the sixth season of The Walking Dead wrapped up in early spring, one of the show’s character actors, 34-year-old Ross Marquand (Aaron), showed off his lighter side in a video series for Condé Nast’s The Scene, titled “ Impressions of super famous people being super mundane.” Mr. ![]()
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