The Invisible Man
Reprinted without permission
There are many things that Edward Norton will not talk about in an interview. What is amazing is just how eloquently, how vehemently, and simply how long he can go on talking about the things he will not talk about. Take his relationship with Courtney Love--whatever it may be. First he trots out a dozen variations of "no comment." "You can write anything you want on that score, and it probably won't be accurate, but I'm not on any level going to correct it, defend it or discuss it." He expands to a discussion of the evil media: "The media, in regards to me, is always many months behind the truth, if it ever gets close in the first place." And no matter what the topic, in the end he'll find a way back to his favorite subject, acting. "I love creating memorable characters as opposed to being known, myself. My ability to do that is directly related to my ability to keep myself out of the way."
Keeping the real Edward Norton hidden has made him his generation's most successful anti-movie star. After four films, all of which won him critical raves, Norton, 29, has no signature persona--he disappears into every role and changes drastically in each film. He won a Golden Globe in 1996 for his very first movie, Primal Fear, in which he played a psychotic killer pretending to be a choirboy with multiple personalities. That same year he was also a love-struck, singing nerd in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You and Hustler magazine's First Amendment lawyer in The People vs. Larry Flynt. Rounders, out last month, was supposed to be Matt Damon's movie, but Norton stole all the scenes as his lovable, renegade sidekick, Worm. Now, in what may be his riskiest role to date, Norton turns up as a neo-Nazi skinhead who repents and then tries to get his brother out of the white-supremacist movement in American History X, out next week (review).
American History not only gave Norton his first starring role but cemented his status as a Hollywood player--and landed him in his first major controversy. In a very unusual move, the producers and the studio, New Line, asked Norton to help recut American History X, after they grew unhappy with the work of the director, Tony Kaye. "I was horrified at what Norton was doing," says Kaye, 45, an award-winning director of commercials who was making his first feature film. "He's a narcissistic dilettante. And because he's such a terrific actor, he can fool an awful lot of fools. Everyone [at New Line] was so fearful of him and so in his pocket." At one point Kaye stormed out of the editing room and punched a wall, breaking his left hand. Producer John Morrissey responds to Kaye by saying, "He was frenzied and delusional all the time." Kaye's planning to sue New Line; he wants to recut the picture or get his name off it.
Norton doesn't want to talk about Kaye's battle, and hates that it's gotten as much press attention as it has. "It's been grossly overhyped. It makes me laugh, frankly," he says, without laughing. "Tony wants to play the role of the oppressed auteur. I have no interest in descending into a pissing contest with him. It's a disservice to people to spend time on this, and I don't want it to distract from the film on any level."
Clearly, Norton is exhausted. He arrives for his interview in a Beverly Hills hotel just after finishing a 14-hour day shooting The Fight Club, directed by David Fincher (Seven) and costarring Brad Pitt. The schedule's grueling: a 120-day shoot, each day starting at 6 a.m. The actor's lost all the muscular bulk he put on for American History X; he's gaunt and pale, with bags under his eyes. And like so much else in his life, he won't talk about the role. He'll just talk about the process. "Don't take this the wrong way --the work is a thrill and I never take it for granted--but the actual process of making a film is a grind," he says. But once he starts talking, his fatigue seems to evaporate. He heats up, pounding the table for emphasis. He's passionate, intellectual, and earnest as a schoolboy. And he has a tendency to lecture: "Tragedy was a very, very common dramatic form in a certain time. I mean, the Greeks valued it a great deal, and Shakespeare valued it."
The Fight Club won't wrap until December, and Norton has been missing his home in Manhattan. For now, he's been living in a small L.A. ranch house with a stray tabby cat. His list of friends reads like the credits from his movies: Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Woody Harrelson. The son of a government lawyer and a teacher, Norton grew up privileged in Columbia, Md.--a planned community designed by his grandfather, visionary developer James Rouse. After graduating with a history degree from Yale in 1991, he worked part time for a charitable foundation his grandparents started and struggled in the New York theater world until landing his breakthrough role in Primal Fear. "When you have lots of options that could be safe and easy, it's very difficult to choose one that isn't going to be," he says. "But I've been acting since I was 5, and I'm just very, very obsessed. The whole compulsion and the excitement for me is to dig down into diverse realms of experience without ever having to choose those lives and take those consequences."
But what could be the appeal of digging down into the soul of the hatemonging racist he plays in American History X? "You know, there are good reasons for exploring that," he says, sipping his tea and honey. "He's abhorrent, but he has a real complex and tragic humanity." Norton is braced for the reaction to the part. "Once the movie comes out, I'm sure I'll be sent very tough, very dark sort of roles. And at this point, there's nothing I want to do more than a comedy." And finally, the actor breaks into a very rare smile.
With Corie Brown in Los Angeles
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