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Zap2it.com Scott Caan is one driven dude. At the age of 24 he's already made more than 15 films including "Gone in 60 Seconds," "Varsity Blues" and the upcoming "Oceans Eleven." He is now in "American Outlaws" playing Cole Younger, the gunslingin' counterpart to Jesse James, played by Colin Farrell. Others rounding out the cast of the James-Younger gang include Gabriel Macht, Ali Larter, Kathy Bates, Timothy Dalton, Will McCormack and Gregory Smith. While Caan's a relative newcomer to acting in film, his whole life has revolved around the business as he was born the son of one of Hollywood's more notorious stars, James Caan, Oscar®-nominee for "The Godfather." Zap2it met with Caan one Sunday morning at the very distasteful hour of 10 a.m. at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City in Los Angeles. The son of the famous actor arrived looking a touch disheveled dressed in red satin pajama pants, black velvet slippers and a black Fedora, draped in a black satin bathrobe with the number 11 on the breast pocket, looking eerily like his father in his younger days. Needless to say, this young man had some explaining to do. CAAN: I have an explanation. I went to a lingerie party last night. I got a ride home with a girl who wouldn’t take me home because of the traffic on Sunset Boulevard. And I said to her, 'Would you take me to this hotel?' So she dropped me off here and this is all I had. This is actually the “Oceans Eleven” wrap gift. ZAP2IT: Do people make western movies to fulfill a childhood fantasy? CAAN: For me it’s definitely that. With most movies in general it’s like that. You get to go off and make believe, especially with horses. I think every kid sits around in an old wooden chair flipped over with a broom stick playing shotgun and cowboys and Indians. It’s definitely a good job. ZAP2IT.COM: The film does take a lot of historical license. Did you do research for it? CAAN: We did look at books and the Internet and stuff like that to find out who these characters were, but I think what’s cool about playing these non-fictional characters is that you know what they did but you don’t know exactly who they were. It’s not like you're doing a study of a person so you kind of get to make it your own and have fun with it. So when somebody looks back, hopefully, in a few years, they’ll be like 'oh, that’s who Cole Younger was.' People don’t really have anything to look at except for other actors who’ve played the part. ZAP2IT.COM: What books did you read? CAAN: There’s a book called The James-Younger Gang. There’s another picture book called The Outlaws with a lot of stuff in it too. But they’re all the same pictures. There are like seven pictures total. All the books you read are pretty much the same stuff and it’s all the same pictures because I guess they didn’t have a lot of Kodak. ZAP2IT.COM: What was your first non-acting job? CAAN: I was in a music group. I was a roadie for Cypress Hill and House of Pain. That lasted a few years. I came off a tour in 1993 and this director had heard about me through the group and through music and stuff and he asked me to come in and read for this movie which was the first movie I ever did. I got the part and went and did it and decided to drop music. ZAP2IT.COM: Do you ask your father for advice on films? CAAN: No. With women. ZAP2IT.COM: What sort of advice did he give you? CAAN: Terrible advice! He’s only been married six times so I’m asking the wrong guy. I think once you start screwing that up, by the time you’re 50 and you continue to screw it up, you’re just done. You haven’t figured it out and you’re not going to. ZAP2IT.COM: Does that make you shy about marriage and making long-term commitments? CAAN: Sure. ZAP2IT.COM: But you will eventually? CAAN: Yeah, I’d like to. ZAP2IT.COM: We know a lot about your father, but not so much about you. What would we be surprised to find out about you? CAAN: I’m really into theater. I just wrote and directed a play called "Almost Love." ZAP2IT.COM: Are you in it as well? CAAN: Yeah. ZAP2IT.COM: What about the screenplay you wrote? CAAN: "I'd almost forgotten about it. It's called "Chasing the Party." I wrote it a couple of years ago. I've written a few scripts since then and I've learned a lesson. I don't want to try and get them out there and sell them unless I need the money or something because it takes so long to get made. It ends up going through so many stages and rewrites. The last two scripts I've written I kind of want to just see if I can just get them made." ZAP2IT.COM: Isn't Disney going to be making it with you? CAAN: "Well, maybe not. Jerry Bruckheimer's making it. I don't know if Disney's going to make it. I worked on it (the script) for nine months. It's about two kids trying to sneak into the Playboy Mansion for Hugh Hefner's last party. It's got to be an R-Rated movie so I don't know how Disney's going like it." ZAP2IT.COM: What were your favorite and least favorite things about making "American Outlaws" in the Texas during the summer? CAAN: When you do a movie you hear actors sit around and complain, but when you look back at it, it’s like 'our job’s pretty great,' so I don’t really have anything to complain about. You know, the heat sucked, but I had a pool at my hotel. The best part about doing an ensemble movie is you’re kind of just thrown into a family with eight guys and a girl and the crew and you go live together for four months. Every time you do that, someone’s your best friend within a couple weeks. I just dig going on locations doing a movie. Aside from the horses and how it was a fun movie to make it’s more about the people. I’ve still got one of my closest friends now from doing that movie. ZAP2IT.COM: What about the stunts? CAAN: I like to do stunts but at the end of the day there’s somebody who does it better than me. It’s a better idea to let them do it. They’re professionals who know how to not get hurt. I’ve been riding my whole life: rodeo team rope. Of course, I’d like to do a bunch of stunts and we did some of them but there are professional stunt men there who do it better. ZAP2IT.COM: Is your personality anything like Cole Younger’s with his quick temper? CAAN: Yeah, yeah. It’s a dormant part of my personality. I think that when somebody’s good in a movie — not saying that I was good in the movie — most of the roles that are the easiest to do... nobody can do a part where there’s not a piece of them in that part because then it’s like you’re watching something and you know it’s not real. So, everything you do should have a piece of you. You should be able to relate to it to some extent. I think the best stuff to do, especially when you’re a young actor, is stuff you can relate to. I mean, I don’t act out and go punching people in the face. But I think that I’m a lot like the Alpha male when someone else is trying to run the show. ZAP2IT.COM: What was it like working with Colin Farrell? He’s now emerging as this big new star. CAAN: I dig it. I think he deserves it. He’s a good actor. He’s unusual, he’s not your everyday cover of Teen Beat. It is like overnight success, but I don’t knock that stuff. I used like get pissed, 'Why don't I, why don't I' because when you get put into that position overnight, eventually if you screw up it’s like the weight of the world on your shoulders. You know, Colin just got put into the leads of all these movies and he can handle it. But there’re a lot of kids who get that overnight success who maybe can’t when they're not ready. ZAP2IT.COM: Are you ready if it were to happened to you? CAAN: Well, you know, I’ve done 16, 17 movies now and I feel like I’ve paid my dues a little bit. I feel that if I do get the lead role in a movie, that maybe some people already know who I am. It’s not going to be like 'who the hell is that?' I don’t think. ZAP2IT.COM: Would you like to work with your father as an actor, director or both? CAAN: I’d like to direct him. I’d love to work with him and just talk acting with him. But it would have to be a level where he respected me and respected my opinions. |