August 2000
Actor and born- again rebel Billy Crudup tells us who and what gets him all fired up
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“Oh, I was a goody two shoes,” admits actor Billy Crudup, whose portrayal of heroin addict Fuckhead in the darkly funny junk elegy Jesus’ Son has nothing goody two-shoed about it. “I lived the typical American high-school life. I wasn’t an anarchist at all. I feel much more like a teenager now than when I actually was one. “I’m experiencing that level of anarchy now.”
Directed by Alison Maclean, Jesus’ Son follows the tortuous journey towards redemption of a ravaged drug loser, Fuckhead, as he stumbles through a series of offbeat incidents in 70s America. Billy shares the screen in Jesus’ Son with Brit chick Samantha Morton, whose character, Michelle, has an on-off liaison with Fuckhead. “She has more energy in her little finger than I have in 10 of mine. And she’s a fucking awesome actress. I just feel rewarded by being around her. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it’s true.”
Away from work, Billy is a laid-back, downtown New Yorker with a passion for golf, theatre and his girlfriend of our years, actress Mary Louise Parker. And like all good born-again teenagers, he has a penchant for Led Zeppelin, something he blames on his next movie, Stillwater, writer-director Cameron Crowe’s 1973 rock’n’roll love letter. Playing the role of the lead guitarist has been a dream for Billy, a self-confessed addict for the rock god experience. “If I made a little guitar face at the front of the stage when I was playing solo, the extras in the audience went beserk. The power that instils in you is incalculable.”
Rock on, Billy.
Sarah Bailey
Photograph Mary Ellen Mark
Picture Editor Duane Ashusrt
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