US March 1992

FINELY AGED SCOT

MELLOWED AND EXTRA SMOOTH, SEAN CONNERY ONLY SEEMS TO GET BETTER WITH TIME

BY STEVEN GOLDMAN

You can imagine this man in numerous settings: hiking through Brigadoon on a cold winter’s day or sipping a martini at his villa in Marbella, Spain. So it’s jarring when you see him in the crass conference suite at the headquaters of Cinergi, the company that produced his latest film, ‘Medicine Man.” Behind him stands an eight-foot mural of Rambo with a machine gun aimed at Connery's head. James Bond never needed such a flashy weapon.

Connery talks about the role he plays in Medicine Man: a research scientist, searching for a cure for cancer in a Brazilian rain forest, who has a Hepburn-Bogart-like romance with a fellow scientist played by Lorraine Bracco (Goodfellas). But it's while talking about his role as executive producer on this project that Connery displays the most enthusiasm.

The sixty-one-year-old actor is said to be as intimidating off screen as he is onscreen. Word is that his behavior on the Catemaco, Mexico, set of Medicine Man was no exception. Connery reportedly rushed the ten-week production, requiring the crew to work double shifts so he could leave three days early. He was frustrated, he later explained, by the inefficiency of the shoot.

Bracco insists Connery was "a really soft and gentle man."

"Sure he's mellowed," scoffs John Milius, who directed him in 1975's The Wind and the Lion. "He used to be a young curmudgeon. Now he's an old curmudgeon."

"Saying that Sean is tough is certainly accurate," agrees Red October and Medicine Man director John McTiernan. "But he's never unreasonable. He was suffering with the heat and humidity on this one. He's the kind of Scot that likes to go out there and stand in a freezing rain and tell you how bracing it is. You get him in a jungle with ninety-five-degree heat and ninety-eight-percent humidity and it's tough."

It's clear, as Connery talks about scouting locations, conducting research and rewriting the script, that if he's tough, it comes from a passion for his work and a penchant not to suffer fools gladly.

You have a reputation for changing scripts. Do you enjoy writing?
Well, yeah. It [helps me] get the character into his place in the drama. You find your guideline in your own tastes. Mine lean more toward humor and irony, because that's what life is to me.

Why is that?
I think if you don't have any kind of humor about life, she'll drive you loony. In all circumstances, when people are under duress they clown around or do something to get away from the reality of their situation. Look at Jackie Mason's humor - well, all the Jewish humor. It's quite cruel, aye? But it's funny. It is marvelously revealing. I mean, I adore the word chutzpah. [Laughs] In Scotland, they would say, "He's got a brass neck." That suggests that nothing can faze you. But that doesn't have the same juice as the word chutzpah.

Cinergi paid a large sum for the script [reportedly $3 million]. Was there some reluctance on your part to play with it?
Yes, but while the first screenplay was a terrific idea, it was more of a concept without being in-depth.

How did you go about rewriting it?
In this case, the moment I read the script I got into the research. Then John [McTiernan] and I pumped all the stuff I discovered back into the script.

It sounds like you enjoy the research as much as the writing. Is that something you've always enjoyed doing?
Yes, I'm self-educated. When I left Scotland and decided to be an actor and not a soccer player, I had to give myself an education. I went up and down the libraries in Britain with a list of books which I pored through with a dictionary.

Were you attracted by the prospect of working on a film this topical?
Well, I always like to work on something that's got some basis in reality.

How do you explain your attraction to 'Highlander 2' then?
I did Highlander in Scotland [in 1986] and it was a romp. Then they came back and made me a fantastic offer for eight days work [on Highlander 2]. And we would shoot in Argentina, where I had never been. So that was my response to that.

You reportedly got $500,000 for one day's work on 'Robin Hood,' and it's rumored that you made $10 million on 'Medicine Man.' Do you see the large salaries you're commanding now as a compensation for what you didn't get in the Bond years?
Yes. That's part of it. I loathe injustice in any sense. When I do a picture, I give them 100 percent and I expect them to do the same for me. At the end of the day, if one was going to be in a position of power, such as one is, then obviously, one wants to be in the market at going price.

Throughout the years you've had numerous battles with the studios over payment for your work, haven't you?
Yes. That's true. But that hasn't always been the case. I'll tell you a story about Joe Levine. He asked me to do A Bridge Too Far (1977). I don't know what the money was, say it was like $400,000 for five weeks' work. Now the same office that represented me then also represented Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman and Ryan O'Neal. They all signed on for one or two weeks of work on the movie for about $300,000 more than me. When I found this out, I called up Joe and told him I didn't think it was fair. He said, "It's not my fault you've got a lousy agent. I've got to make the best deal I can." I promptly fired the agent. Then Joe phones me back and says, "I've decided to give you what the others got." I said, "Thank you, that's very fair."

We had a six-month shoot. The schedule was such that if he lost one day it would cost him zillions. One day they weren't ready to do a scene and they asked me to do one of mine. No problem. Anyway, I was back in Hollywood when Joe came up and handed me the keys to a Rolls-Royce. I said, "What's this for?" He said, "I would still be in Holland [if it weren't for you]." I said, "Frankly, I don't want it." What was I going to do with a Rolls-Royce in America? My wife said, "Take it." But I said, "No. You were very fair [to me], and that's enough" He said, "I'll give it to your wife then." He ended up giving her a check for $50,000. That was Joe Levine.

But what about the Bond films? You had notorious battles with the producers over money and must have been frustrated by your inability to work outside the series.
Nobody can comprehend the pressures involved in making those films. It was all-embracing and overpowering. Every question was related to Bond; The Beatles were around at the same time and they had a lot of crossover too, but there were four of them to kick around. We went to Japan, for example, to do You Only Live Twice. If I told you there were 600 photographers there, I wouldn't be lying. The noise was like machine guns. Wherever I went they were there. Again, one didn't hire a PR. Of course that would have been a smarter way to handle it. But I think I'm much too secretive to have a press agent.

Do you see yourself as a private person?
Very much so. I like going to soccer and boxing matches and I like walking in the streets. I would never give that up. And I really haven't had any major problems, It's an experience like a premiere [that bothers me]. The other day I went to see Hook. There was a whole avenue of people with cameras there. They were closer than you are to me now, but they shout as though you can't hear them. My wife got caught in a sandwich with some people that got over the barrier and she's tiny. It's a bit spooky, that. I don't like that kind of hysteria.

You caused a little hysteria with your comments about hitting women to Barbara WaIters. ...
Very simply, Barbara Walters set out to hang her hat on one point, which was that I had said it was okay to slug women. She must have succeeded. The next day I drove down Melrose and a woman pulled alongside me in this very elegant car and gave me the finger.

What I object to was that it was a genuine case of lifting out of context. What I said was the outcome of a long discussion about what I thought was the worst thing that you can do to a woman in a relationship. I said I thought that would be mental cruelty, where you destroy the person so that they have no confidence. Here's one scenario: You got a guy who's married. He's got two or three young kids. He's working very hard. He's got a small apartment. It's difficult. He comes home and, for whatever reason, the wife has a real bug up her arse about something. She's going to have some kind of confrontation....The result is [smacks his hands together] he slaps her. That happens day in and day out. And it happens in the reverse order, too, with women slapping the men. I simply said that is not the worst thing that can happen to a woman or a man. Psychological damage is. That's what I was talking about, but that wasn't what she was interested in. I met her four days afterward at a friend's house. She kept her dark glasses on and never referred to it. I never said another word about it to her. But it still raises its head. In the midst of time, that's what's stayed.

You seem to have survived it. Even when you do a bad movie, the film may be criticized, but never Connery.
It's very difficult to hide the actor that's decent, no matter how bad the film is. But there are different reasons why [a film] works or doesn't work. You can't accept [responsibility] for pressures and problems that you really can't do very much about.

Such as?
Well, let's take for example a film I've done that hasn't succeeded, say Family Business. I read the script and agreed to do it 'cause I found it stimulating. Now, having completed the film, I looked at it and decided that I succeeded in making the film that I was excited about. That's the “A stage.”

Then there's the "B stage," which is when the film goes out and is either a success or not a success. But you have to be clear about separating these two issues. I've never had difficulty in thinking that I've succeeded in the A stage -and sometimes in the B stage. When it doesn't succeed, one has to have this kind of philosophy about it: "Well, there could have been other elements involved."

Is every failure due to "other elements"?
No. I went through a whole period where I made some dumb choices. But there was a whole body of work that went on for years where one was never mentioned. Why? Well, it becomes almost like a club. Once you get in that club, you're suddenly something different. You know the names I'm talking about, the people who somehow will always be considered because they've been through that door, like Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep.

You are certainly in that club now.
Yes. But it took me longer.

You recently had a scare with your throat. Were you ever worried that it might end your career?
Well, that was the first response. I thought I had laryngitis, but the doctors found these polyps on my larynx. I was told I should have a biopsy done, but first they suggested I do a month of silence. So, like a Trappist monk, I didn't talk for a month, which is the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. I had a card - one side was in English and one side in Spanish -saying, "Sorry, due to a throat problem I cannot talk." I'll give you a hundred dollars to a doughnut that everybody said, "Why, what's wrong?" [Laughs] Or [he yells] THEY SPOKE TO ME LIKE THAT. I had another card which said, "You c---, I can hear! I'm just not allowed to talk!" [Laughs]

You live in Marbella now, don't you?
Yes. I've had a house in Spain for twenty-odd years. But I recently became a resident of Monaco.

Was that the same year you married your second wife, Micheline Roquebrune?
I couldn't tell you when I got married. I don't know when I got divorced. [Connery's first marriage was to actress Diane Cilento, with whom he has a twenty-seven-year-old son.]

You don't know your own anniversary?
No. I have an absolute block about these things. Maybe it's related to the fact that I've had very little education. People who have had a deep education are very conscious of dates. I know I was awarded the Freedom of Edinburgh on the ninth of June, but only because that's [Scottish race-car driver] Jackie Stewart's birthday.

What is the Freedom of Edinburgh?
It's been going on for 500 years. I'll give you an indication of the kind of exalted company one finds himself in. Benjamin Franklin, Queen Victoria, Eisenhower, Churchill [have all won it]. It's discussed and approved and then they ask you would you accept it or turn it down. I told them I'd be absolutely honored. Apparently Prince Charles had sort of made it known that he would accept it, but they wouldn't give it to him! [Laughs]

Was it more rewarding than the Oscar?
Let me put it to you this way: I don't think it's any great surprise that I could get an Oscar, but it's a great surprise that I could get the Freedom of Edinburgh. It was terrific because the people all vote for it.

How do you explain your appeal? Women like you and yet men don't feel threatened by you. Why is that?
Well, if there is anything that one wants to have, in my book, it's to feel well in one's skin. Now, how do you go about acquiring that? Well, that's the question, isn't it?