Is it true? Is it possible? Could the baddest badass to ever badass be – gasp! – bored of action movies? Well, yes, that’s what Bruce Willis is saying right now. During Willis’s most recent junket to promote the action film RED 2, the brilliant bald man and star of such actioners as the Die Hard franchise and The Expendables films, said that action is getting just a little boring for him.
In a recent interview with Spanish magazine XLS (via The Guardian), Willis had this to say about his action films:
Explosions are one of the most boring parts of my job. When you have seen a few fireballs, it’s not exciting anymore. I know part of my audience enjoys the explosions, but to be honest, I’m a bit bored of it now…I am very clear with who I am. I work in all sorts of films, but the action movies are the ones that generate the most revenue. I like to earn lots of money from those, but I do all types: small productions, mega-projects, medium-sized, even science fiction.
Willis later seemed bored in a London radio interview, and finally confessed that he was thinking more about driving than about the interview:
Has any actor ever told you this, James? This part is not acting what we’re doing right now. You might be, but we are just selling the film now. Sales. The fun part was making the movie.
Of course, this is all very rich coming from a guy who has made his career out of doing big action films. But you know what? I want to give Bruce some credit, and not just because he’s one of my favorite badasses. He might be a little rude about it, but at least he’s being honest. He admits that he does action films for the paycheck, and if the paycheck isn’t enough (as in The Expendables 3, apparently), he has no reason to do the film. In the radio interview, he even admits that the fun part (the actual acting) is over, and that junkets and promotions bore him. For a man that has been doing this for years, it’s not surprising that he’s bored. I think anyone would be.
What this means for the future of Bruce Willis’s career we do not know. Will he start making mumblecore films? Will he go the indie route? Unlikely, given the paycheck he expects. Then again, he was excellent in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, and has done some pretty interesting and outlandish films over his career. Maybe the next few years will see him stepping away from action and explosions and towards some more interesting roles.
What do you think of Bruce Willis‘ comments about action films? Let us know below!
