The legendary actor, David Carradine, walked the earth for three seasons on the television show Kung-Fu. Besides having a legendary father, Carradine became a staple on old west television shows and for years was a major player at major motion picture studios. After almost a 20 year hiatus from headlining major movies, Carradine is back and in a big way. This time the once quiet, non-violent pupil is the cold hearted, smooth as silk, Bill, in Quentin Tarantino’s second installment appropriately titled Kill Bill Vol. 2.

What did it feel like for the first film to come out and for you not to be in it?

David Carradine: Well of course I knew that, I went to do the ADR, and there wasn’t much to do because we got great sound on this picture, but I went to do added lines, that line about Daryl Hannah’s one blue eye? And he changed that around to get it in, and it’s a great line cause it gets good laughs, but uh I came in again to do that last little speech in the film, about the baby, which was a great idea, but at that time, we are there and Quinton is there, and he casually tells me, “oh, uh, your not in the first picture” (laughter). And I was like ok, but he did tell me that essentially I’m the first thing that happens and the last thing that happens in the second picture...which is cool cause if you notice, I’ve got the first line in the first movie, and the last line in the second, and someone with my voice and one hand, and my boots, I manage to almost dominate the whole picture, and I think its cool. It’s great, you know the mysterioso of the picture and the anticipation can’t hurt me in the long run. I mean to wait from October to now, come on.

What do you think of Bill?

David Carradine: I like Bill a lot. As Bill is presented, I mean you don’t ever see Bill blow her head off? You know? And I think what Quentin has done is he created a monster. You know? Your like “when are we going to see Bill?” This fiend, this killer, this monster, and then when you see him, he’s almost like this Cary grant type. He’s really charming, you can see that there’s this constant danger about him. There’s this tension about him and Uma in the opening scene of Vol. 2, and you forget what’s suppose to happen until the camera zooms back and you see the viper squad. Even when I’m making sandwiches in the film, I have this huge knife in my hand, but you forget or don’t realize it because I’m doing something sweet at the time.

This is the kind of role that will garner interest in people to want to hire you , are you ready to do that again or do you want to wait another 8-10 years for another opportunity?

David Carradine: Well why wouldn’t I ? I mean, another 8-10 years I might be in a wheel chair, um, I mean I’m on social security now, and by then I might not be on social security (laughter). Sure, I have been out of the main game for many years, I have been making independent movies, and I have been living on a ranch and raising horses, and I’ve done that for 26 years, I got divorced and I’m losing the ranch and losing the horses, and I thought, you know I’ve done it, I’ve done 26 years of it, I can walk away from this, I’ll take my saddle with me and move back to town where the bright lights are. So yes, I do want to get back into it, not really to play the game because I never really played the game, but if someone offers me a good script I’m certainly going to do it.

Has that happened yet?

David Carradine: Well no on has seen this movie yet, but within four days of getting a call from Quentin, I got a call form Richard Donner and then Tom Cruise’s people wondering if I spoke Japanese, and you now I didn’t follow any of those up because as soon as Quentin called I knew that’s what I wanted to do. But there are currently pictures in development and I do have the parts, but I have to wait and see if they are going to be made.

Why did you leave Hollywood?

David Carradine: I didn’t leave, I mean I did the TV series for three years, and when that was done I walked, and then there was a period of time where I was making my own movies and financing them myself, and I needed money, I had to work, you know, and I started doing little movies cause they were there. I did one with someone that had done a movie with my dad, and I read the script and that called for a cameo only, and I said you know what fuck the cameo, I want the lead, and he said, I cant afford you, and I told him, try me?

How did you get this role? I mean everyone knows it was suppose to be warren Beatty but then Quentin fired him.

David Carradine: Well I would never say to anybody that Warren Beatty got fired, but uh, I think he and Quentin fell out of love, and I think Warren told Quentin to hire me for the film. the deal was with Warren, you know, I could see the picture with Warren, if you see bull worth, I think he could have pulled it off, but eventually it came to me , which is how it was planned in the first place, which is fine by me!

When you were doing the TV series, that was a crazy time of your life, I mean you were the king of the world then?

David Carradine: Well I didn’t know that. I was working 16-18 hours a day, I did not own a TV set, I lived in a shack on top of a mountain, with Barbara Hershey and her new baby, and I didn’t read newspapers, and was unaware that the show was very popular, until the very end, you know? It wasn’t crazy at all. It was just working my tail off. I remember when I did the pilot, and I though no network is going to want to do this. How could that happen? A half Chinese guy walking the old west that doesn’t fire one gun and never gets on a horse? And I remember telling Jerry Thorpe the producer, I want to make this too good for television, and he said lets do both. And I think that’s what we did. I look back at my memories of the show and people always tell me that the production looks so good, and the content is so unusual, and I was sort of stuck with it, and decided I’ll do three years of this and then walk, and that’s what I did.

KILL BILL VOL 2 OPENS APRIL 16

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