Tobey Maguire: I am a blank slate--therefore I can create anything I want.

DK: After playing a kid in the 50's in This Boy's Life. and a kid in the 60's in the Oscar-nominated short The Duke of Groove, you created the archetypal angst suburban teen of the 70's in The Ice Storm. What's your take on the 70's?

TM: I like the movies and the music a lot. It was a really raw time. Movies like Network were really the core of what people were feeling then -- they were really pissed off or just wanted to be truthful. Even Jethro Tull -- you can understand what that guy's saying with his dumb flute, 'cause it feels so raw and organic.

DK: You realized a young actor's dream: a cameo in the upcoming Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

TM: I play this really weird hitchhiker who has long blond hair. They bleached my eyebrows for it, and they had to make me completely bald and put a wig on.

DK: How far would you go for a role? Would you go the full monty?

TM: If I was so inspired, if I thought it needed to be in there to be effective. Like Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant--and that was ill-willy.

DK: What wouldn't you do for a movie?

TM: Smoke cigarettes. I've been off for like two and a half years. I haven't been chewing gum for a couple days now and I'm off coffee for about three days.

DK: So you're completely vice free?

TM: I wouldn't say that. I would say that I'm doing my best and the road gets narrower, but you can always switch seats on the Titanic--there's trillions of vices. I've been curious about certain things, but didn't let them get in the way of my life. I don't know how people become successful with some kind of habit.

DK: Is your theatricality the result of nature or nurture?

TM: My mom wanted to be an actress, so she figured her son could be one for her. She said she'd give me $100 to take drama instead of home ec--I wanted to be a cook like my pops.

DK: And you ended up doing McDonald's ads.

TM: I started working around eighth grade. I remember doing a Doritos commerical where there were four days in a row of eating them, and I will tell you, I have not eaten many Doritos since. My first big break was two lines on a Rodney Dangerfield special that got me into the union.

DK: At seventeen you had your own sitcom.

TM: "Great Scott!" We shot thirteen episodes, and six of them aired. And we were on Fox up aganist "60 Minutes". (Laughs) So we had a really good shot.

DK: Are you a happy person?

TM: This is interesting to me: On one hand you have just feeling happy: I don't mean, like, laughing and giddy, but feeling light, like you're free. And on the other hand, you have mirky discomfort, whiny self-pity. And I personally know the steps to get to both. For some reason the majority of the time I think I choose Door No. 2-- the dark, uncomfortable, familiar territory. When I'm being inappropriately rude or trying to manipulate somebody, I know it. So what's up with the ego? Why can't I stop myself and just say "Sorry, here's the truth." I mean, do I get to look forward to that in my life?

DK: If you can get over yourself. What makes you tick?

TM: All the people throughout my life who were naysayers pissed me off. But they've all given me a fervor; an angry ambition that cannot be stopped -- and (laughs) I look forward to finding a therapist and working on that.