Fan Club: Is there a point that you can remember when you wanted to be an actor?

Billy: I knew I would be an actor, since I was seven or eight. An interesting thing for a few years my Mom and I lived out in Los Angeles and one of her close friends was actress Valerie Perrine. She was nominated for an academy award, for a great movie called Lenny with Dustin Hoffman. She was like the Julia Roberts of the seventies and we used to hang out at her house. She had all these interesting people over all the time -Geor ge Roy Hill, Bob Fosse, Ryan O'Neal, Elliott Gould. I hung out and watched these people and it was like hanging out at the circus or carnival. I guess if I was seven or eight and hung out at the carnival, I would be working at a carnival now. That's the kind of attraction it is. Those people are so creative, funny, it's a different life style and I was really attracted to it. Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to be an actor. My mom wouldn't really allow me to pursue it. In fact, Valerie got me a small part in a film she did called W.C. Fields and Me about W.C. Field's life. She played his wife. Rod Steiger played W.C. Fields. My Mom wouldn't let me do it.

Fan Club: That must of really hurt?

Billy: Yeah, so that's kind of it. Since seven or eight, I knew I would be an actor.

Fan Club: What was your first professional role?

Billy: When I lived in New York City, attending Columbia University, I got an agent and got into an actin g class. The first year I tried doing this stuff, I booked a bunch of commercials. The first commercial I ever did was for J.C. Penny. It was like a high school dance and I was this kid in the corner at the high school dance with my J.C. Penny clothes on. I was kind of caught by the camera picking my nose, and that was the first thing I ever got paid to do. That year I made eight commercials. Then I went away for the summer to Williamstown, MA. It's the best summer stock theater in the country. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Chr is Walken, Chri stopher Reeve, you name it they were all there. I spent the entire summer doing Shakespeare, Chekhov, Sam Shephard plays. It was a great summer and it initiated me. It immersed me in the work, in the craft. I came back to Columbia a month into school and I got the job The Beat, which was the first movie I ever did.

Fan Club: Who are some of your favorite actors?

Billy: Well a couple of the actors I really enjoy are Jimmy Stewart, I love Montg omery Clift, and I absolutely adore Cary Grant. He's one of my favorites. Those are sort of the older actors. Actually an actor from the fifties and sixties a television actor, believe it or not Don Knotts. I absolutely love Don Knotts!

Fan Club: He was funny in The Andy Griffith Show. He was funny in everything!

Billy: Yeah! He was absolutely amazing. His commitment to what he does is absolutely astounding and the believability of the most absurd things he can pull off that is what I really, really love.

Fan Club: One of the things that is impressive about your acting is that you don't always take the safe conventional role. You have the ability to play a wide range of characters. What do you look for in deciding which characters to play?

Billy: Well the reality and the truth is, I'm an actor. I basically seek employment. I'm not on a level yet where I get a lot of offers. I do get some, which are great. Basically I do whatever comes my way, and I have been really lucky. I think it is more of a divine guidance, a higher power that guides me into these roles. Honor Thy Mother was something I was very afraid of doing because it was very emotional and there were a lot of places I had to go as an actor and I wasn't sure that I could do it. I always know that whenever I'm afraid of something, whenever it's a true challenge, when I am totally afraid of it, that's the place I want to go to. As an actor choosing a role if I am afraid of it and I don't want to do it, and there's a good chance I could fail, for some reason I am drawn to that. I'm pulled to that sort of role.

Fan Club: You are attracted by the challenge of the role?

Billy: Yeah, not only challenging but I have to know there has to be a good chance I could fail. It is like testing myself.

Fan Club: Most actors say that it is fun to play the villain. What was it like for you to play this evil character in Copycat?

Billy: Well, I never really look at the character that I am playing as evil. Obviously he's come from a certain place that's created him. Usually something happens with a serial killer in childhood and it has happened repeatedly to that person. For instance for the role in Copycat I did a lot of research. I spent, I don't know how many days, hours and weeks researching. I sought out the absolute best professional advise I could find. I went to Dr. Park Dietz who is the foremost forensic psychiatrist in the world. He usually is the psychiatrist that testifies for the prosecution. He did so for everybody from Jeffrey Dahmer to Ted Bundy. He was involved in all the high profile serial killer cases. He is the guy who invented psychological profiling for the FBI.

I went in great depth in research, studying with Dr. Dietz. I watched hours upon hours of private video tapes that Dr. Dietz owns that people have never seen before of him interviewing serial killers. On the other end I went to see Robert Ressler who is the deputy chief of the FBI. He worked with Dr. Dietz to create psychological profiling and together they brought it to Quantico, VA which is the training place for the FBI. So again I did a lot of research and I wasn't thinking of my character as evil wherever the research took me is where I was headed. If it turned out evil I guess that's what happened.

Fan Club: What was the best part about making Copycat?

Billy: I have to say the research. Sometimes in certain movies like Honor Thy Mother or Sworn to Vengeance and now Copycat. I get so involved in the research. I just love it so much. A lot of times as an actor you have to memorize your lines, you rehearse, and work with the other actors. But on the other end of the spectrum, research is such an interesting aspect that's so important to this profession.

Fan Club: So you always research your roles?

Billy: No not always. That's a decision I make. For instance in Honor Thy Mother and Sworn To Vengeance those were two real people. I went and met those people and spent time with them. I read books about them. I talked to their lawyers and their psychiatrist. That stuff is very interesting to me. I learned a lot about law when I did research on Sworn to Vengeance. I learned a lot about psychology when I did the research for Copycat.

Fan Club: For the other roles you just rely on your instincts?

Exactly. Sometimes I just show up on the set and I just rely on my spontaneity, which is a different style. I like to incorporate both styles.

Fan Club: Which scene will you remember most about making Copycat?

Billy: While working I would have to say the scene in the bathroom at the end. It was very intense... they cut about five pages out of that scene and it was very interesting dialogue between Sigou rney and me. I realize it was too long and probably slowed the movie down. It was intense, intense work. We were in that bathroom for like seven days straight, and that's a long time to be on one tiny set. I got kicked in the face a few times, in the scene where she's scrambling and kicking me, and gets away from me for a moment. We had to do it over and over again.

Fan Club: You did all your own stunts?

Billy: Yes

Fan Club: What scene do you enjoy watching from Copycat?

Billy: I love the scene, its a small scene, tiny but the one with Will Patton, when I'm in the police station. When the false confessor walks by me and I say hi to the detectives. I love watching that scene. It's funny, very ironic.

Fan Club: What was it like working with Holly Hunter?

Billy: She is an incredible actress. She's very generous and she's very professional and very intense! To be honest I am very grateful I got to work with both Holly and Sigourney. They're both at the top of their craft and profession. They're what it's really all about. I consider Holly and Sigourney to be pretty good movie stars. They have no attitude.

Fan Club: You worked a lot more with Sigourney.

Billy: Yeah, I did work a lot more with Sigourney than I did with Holly obviously. Sigourney also researched with Dr. Park Dietz. So we were really in sync together and that was a really good feeling. I felt that we were on the same level speaking the same language and coming from the same place as far as information was concerned. She works so hard. It's unbelievable. I thought I worked hard. She works four times as hard. She earns every dollar she makes in her salary without a doubt.

Fan Club: A scene from Copycat that impressed me was in the bathroom when Sigourney spit on you. You had to go from relatively calm to angry immediately. Was that difficult to do?

Billy: Well the funny thing is I was surprised by her spitting on me. I didn't know that was going to happen. So that in itself was humiliating and I was fairly angry about it. Actually I don't feel it was funny for one actor to spit on another. So that helped.

Fan Club: So she knew what she was doing?

Billy: Right.

Fan Club: How did you prepare for your role as Montgomery Clift in Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story?

Billy: Research. I read all the books on Clift. I spoke to his acting teacher, Meredith Stoble. She used to be on the set with him all the time. My acting teacher in L.A. , Kim Stanley, was actually married to Brooks Clift, Monty's brother. Kim was a very well known stage actress in the fifties. She is one of the best American actresses ever. Thank God she was my acting teacher. She gave me a lot of information. In fact one of her sons is Brook Clifts son. She is part of the Clift family. I also worked with a very good friend of mine in L.A., Roddy McDowall. He is still very good friends with Liz Taylor and was very close to Monte Clift. He introduced me to Monte's friends. He also showed me home movies of Monte and him clowning around. Pictures that he took of Monte that nobody has ever seen before. The essence of Montgomery Clift really came from Roddy McDowall. I watched every single one of Monte's movies over and over again. Films that you can't get on video, very obscure ones. Roddy McDowall has a large video collection. Unbelievable! It was the obscure movies that helped me the most.

Fan Club: When you and Sherilyn Fenn acted out the scene from A Place In The Sun it seemed almost like the original?

Billy: I had a video of that scene in the trailer and before we did that scene I watched it over and over again.

Fan Club: You must have found it intimidating playing a Hollywood legend.

Billy: Absolutely. I'm one of his biggest fans. When I started acting Monte Clift is who I wanted to be. So that was even more intimidating to live up to that and to try to have that essence, because Clift was one of the greatest American actors. Nobody has ever done what Clift has done and nobody today is anywhere near Montgomery Clift. So the good thing was that I didn't have to worry about being as good as Clift was, because it just isn't possible in today's Hollywood.

Fan Club: Tell me a little bit about the new film The Brylcreem Boys.

Billy: The Brylcreem Boys was shot in the United Kingdom. I worked with Gabriel Byrne, Angus MacFadyen, Bill Campbell and a host of English actors, John Gordon Sinclair, Joe McGann. The cast alone is the best cast I've ever worked with. The English are just tremendous actors. So well trained. The movie itself takes place about 1939 during World War II before the United States was involved. My character is a pilot that goes over and joins the I.R.F. Before the United States was involved in the war you were allowed to go over and volunteer for the I.R.F. and fight the Germans. My character is a Hollywood movie star and he did a movie called The Flying Aces. He joined the I.R.F. as a publicity stunt and then he got stuck. Once he joined he couldn't get out. He got shot down his first five minutes by his own British flack because he went in the wrong direction. Ireland was neutral during World War II so anybody that fell on Irish soil, usually pilots or guys off boats, regardless of which side they were on had to go to sort of a prison camp. You had to sit the war out in Ireland. The camp is a little bit like M*A*S*H but it wasn't very strict. The Irish were very cool. They let you go out on day passes. There is a pub in the prison camp. It was quite a nice existence, and it's a true story. My character transformed tremendously. He escapes because he is marrying a girl he met in London that's pregnant, and she gets killed in a German air raid. He gets captured and comes back to the camp and at this point he is no longer a pacifist. He is very anti German and wants to get out and fight the war.

Fan Club: How long was the filming for this movie?

Billy: It took about nine weeks, which isn't that fast. Most movies are shot between nine and twelve weeks.

Fan Club: Do you know when it is going to be released?

Billy: No, no idea.

Fan Club: Of all the films you have done which one was the most challenging to do from an acting point of view?

Billy: So far the last two I've done. Copycat and The Brylcreem Boys.

And why was that?

Billy: Well primarily on Copycat what happened was we made one movie a year ago and about four months ago I had to go back and re-shoot the entire ending because it didn't work well in test screenings. A lot of pressure was on me because I didn't play the killer the same way you see him now in the movie. I played him differently, very differently from what my research had sort of told me. I played him how a serial killer is in real life. Which is very scary but scary in a psychological way. It wasn't Hollywood. He wasn't big enough or evil enough.

Fan Club: He was much more internal?

Billy: Yes, he was much more internal, much more complicated much more emotional but internally emotional. A lot quieter. There was a lot of pressure on me when I came back to do the re-shoots on Copycat. It was an eighteen day re-shoot. The re-shoots required a tremendous amount of energy. The Brylcreem Boys in the beginning of the movie my character was this happy go lucky guy who is always making jokes and playing around and being the actor. I also had to learn six different dialects from Indian to two types of English, Irish and German.

That was very, very hard. So I was always imitating people. Some of the dialects I could do well and some I didn't do so well. It is hard for me when I don't do well on something. I feel terrible about it. My character makes a major transformation into this guy who is no longer happy go lucky who's a real warrior. I had to show a lot of emotion for this character. There is a scene where I break down crying and release a tremendous outburst of anger. Brylcreem Boys was a real stretch in every direction an actor has to go in, which was not easy.

Fan Club: You said the best thing to come out of the film Chasers was that you meet Erika. Since that time you have become engaged. Have you set a wedding date?

Billy: No we haven't set a wedding date. It's a ways off.

Fan Club: You got to work with Erika again in Girl in the Cadillac, tell me about the film.

Billy: That was a film that Erika and I decided to do together. We were involved in putting the movie together. Lucas Platt who worked with Jonatha n Demme made his directional debut. Demme also helped put the movie together. The film was a very low budget film. We shot it in about twenty-four days, which is a very short period of time.

Fan Club: Wow! It looks like it took longer than that to make.

Billy: It was a tiny movie. No money whatsoever. We wanted to work together again and we found this little piece and it was a really nice character piece. It was a great role for Erika and I think it was a great role for myself. I had a lot of fun with it. Both Erika and I went down to Texas to the real town of Paint Rock. We lived the movie for forty-eight hours and we found a lot of colors for our characters which we added on our own. We had a lot of fun and it was great for Erika and I to work together. It was a nice little movie about two characters. I got to play an older guy and that was nice. The film had a little bit of comedy. And I used a southern accent.

Fan Club: What do you like doing when you have time off from work?

Billy: I don't have much time off because I'm always trying to work on something.

Fan Club: That's great! Please keep doing that for us.

Billy: O.K. I have three dogs which I love to be with and I live on the beach so the dogs and I go on long walks. The dogs are a big part of my life, they're like children.

Fan Club: What kind of dogs are they?

Billy: A Rhodesian Ridgeback which is a very large dog, a M iniature Pinscher which is like a miniature doberman pincher then a little black and white Boston Terrier, which we actually found on location for Girl in the Cadillac. He was lost, a little puppy on the highway in Bakersfield. It was 110 degrees. He was just wandering down the highway so we stopped and picked him up and he's been a dream ever since. He's been a great little dog. I have a flotation tank and I spend a lot of time with that too.

Fan Club: What is a floatation tank?

Billy: A floatation tank is a devise invented by Dr. John Lilly for NASA to explore weightlessness. It's sensory deprivation tank so when you go in there you close the door and there's no light, no sound and there is about nine inches of warm water and eight hundred pounds of dissolved salt. You float on top of the water. You are actually suspended. The water temperature is 93.5 which is the temperature of your skin so you loose the sensation of feeling, and you are sort of suspended. Did you ever see the movie Al tered States?

Fan Club: Yes, I did see that.

Billy: That's what a floatation tank is all about. So you can almost go into another world? Exactly.

Fan Club: Were you surprised when you found out about the fan club?

Billy: Yes, very surprised. I didn't think I had that many fans out there. I do a lot of work but nothing that's been really huge. I'm just sort of a journeyman as far as work is concerned. I do a job like a plumber, I think. I'm not a star.

Fan Club: What is something that you would most want your fans to know about you?

Billy: Maybe the fact that I am really into animals and animal rights. Most of the charities that I donate my money to have to do with animals, domestic dogs and horses. I sponsor a couple of horses at a horse sanctuary. One day when I make a lot of money I hope to have a huge animal refugee.

Fan Club: That's great. All parents like to talk about the accomplishments of their children. Now that things are really starting to happen for you what do your parents think about your work?

Billy: They are both very pleased and very proud of me because I've done a lot of good work and they have been very supportive of me and my career. Which is great.

That always makes it easier doesn't it?

Billy: Yeah!

Fan Club: One of my favorite movies of yours is Radio Inside. If you had to be remembered for only one movie or character which one would it be and why?

Billy: I think my favorite film, definitely not my best film, but it was my first big movie, it was my first big break. -- Stealing Home.

Fan Club: You were offered the Calvin Klein underwear commercial and you turned it down. I think that says a lot about who you are and what you want. Had you done the commercial you would have gotten instant recognition. Instead you have taken what some would say as the even harder way of getting noticed.

Billy: I didn't want to be a model. I wanted to be an actor. I didn't want to be perceived as a model or a good looking guy. The underwear thing was the wrong way to go. I've never really been interested in that. I didn't want to make it on that level. Later on down the line it can be restricting. In the long run it was a very good decision.

Fan Club: Do you have any new projects that you are going to be doing?

Billy: Yes, I am doing a movie called Natural Enemy with Dona ld Sutherland and Le sley Ann Warren. I am playing another psycho.

Fan Club: That's good. Maybe you won't have to research as much.

Billy: Yeah, I think so. I got that down pat.

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