George A Romero's Land of the Dead Interview Dennis Hopper (Kaufman) Previous INTERVIEWER Do you get in touch with the zombies? DENNIS HOPPER They get in touch with me. My perfect world comes crumbling down because they start learning things. They are doing things I never thought they could do. They're beginning to learn from each other.  They're beginning to have some sort of intelligence where they are starting to communicate with each other. INTERVIEWER Why did your character decide to create this world? What do you get in return? Is it a power trip? DENNIS HOPPER Because he could and he did. If you were living in this kind of thing, I guess it's going back to a feudalistic kind of situation where you need protection, you need walls, you need something to keep it out, and so on. Then it comes, and one person becomes the head of that and it just ends up being this kind of way. INTERVIEWER Have you been a zombie movie fan? Have you always wanted to do one? DENNIS HOPPER I'm trying to think if I've done a zombie movie before. Just vampire and bloodBlood. Did I ever do a zombie movie? I guess not. It seems like I've been around zombie movies all my life. I'm from Dodge City, Kansas, so on Saturday afternoons I saw zombie movies. Yeah, I am a fan. INTERVIEWER There is always a political overtone to Romero's films. Do you see this becoming a trend in Hollywood? And is it the responsibility of the audience to be political? DENNIS HOPPER I think everything is political in one way or another. Brian Grazer called me while I was here. He wants me to narrate Inside Deep Throat, a documentary on the making of Deep Throat, which was a pornographic movie that was made and which is also the name of a figure in the Nixon Watergate scandal. It's opening at Sundance and it's a wonderful documentary that these two men made. I didn't realize how political this film was. Harry John Reems, the male star, made $250. The federal government took him to court and tried to blame it all on him because they couldn't get the mafia who was distributing it. The movie made $600 million, more than any other movie ever made. It's an amazing documentary. But it was amazing how political that was. Film is political. Even if it's a comedy, it seems to end up being political. If you remember the comedy “All in the FamilyFamily,” it was a very interesting political show. So I think it's hard to get away from politics, especially right now. There's a very conservative movement going on in the United States, and there's a very liberal movement going on in the United States. Both of these things are obviously going to make films. They're going to make films for their side, and maybe it's a very interesting moment. Maybe we'll get some really interesting things happening. I hope so. I'd rather think of it positively than negatively at the moment. INTERVIEWER Do you think the political matter in this movie is very obvious? DENNIS HOPPER I don't know. I don't know how this is going to end up looking. George has his vision and he would know. I can't get back far enough to look at it that way right now because I'm so involved in it. I just know I'm trying to do my part as real as possible. I think that if you read into the fact that there are now people out there who couldn't communicate before and are now learning how to communicate with each other, and that they finally break through and they're in your house, and they destroy your house, then it's political. That's what it basically is, from my point of view. That's what happens to my world in the film. INTERVIEWER Do you consider getting back into the director's chair? DENNIS HOPPER Yeah. As a matter of fact I'm going to direct. INTERVIEWER What is it? DENNIS HOPPER It's a film called Genuine Article. INTERVIEWER Can you tell me what the film is about? DENNIS HOPPER It's a complicated story. It's a heist, a political movie. INTERVIEWER What's your opinion of horror movies? Do you like them? And do you have a favorite? DENNIS HOPPER Do I have a favorite horror movie? Wow. When I think of horror movies, I think of things like Diabolique. That would have to be my Diaboliquefavorite. Yeah, I like horror and I like scary movies. I like to be scared. I like to jump out of my seat. I like movies that make me feel something and horror films, if they're good, make you feel something. INTERVIEWER You once said you never have any great roles in your life. Is this still true? DENNIS HOPPER I've made some wonderful films. I think Frank Booth in David Lynch's film Blue Velvet is a wonderful role.  And Hoosiers, a small movie about basketball that I got nominated for, was a nice sweet role. The Last Days of Frankie the Fly is a little movie that I had a wonderful role in. I've had some really interesting roles and been in some great movies.		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