Barry Bostwick has been a working actor in Hollywood since 1970 with a resume that includes Rocky Horror Picture Show, the television show Spin City, Spy Hard, and countless other film and television projects. Recently, I had the pleasure of catching up with the veteran actor to discuss his new film FDR: American Badass, surviving and thriving after his prostate cancer, and what he's learned throughout his time in the business. I hope you enjoy my interview with Barry Bostwick and be sure to check out his over the top and gleefully fun performance as FDR in FDR: American Bad Ass.


TONY: What was your interpretation of this film when you first read the script?

Barry Bostwick: I thought it was difficult to read because I didn't understand half of the language that FDR spoke because it was all street hip hop language. I had to actually ask the director and writer what the fuck is this all about. They said, 'That's exactly what it's all about. It's about fuck. Everybody says fuck. Everybody says dirty words and we tried to street the whole thing up and bring it into a modern vernacular so that kids today in school will learn their history on a level in which they understand.'

TONY: You've been a part of a number of different projects in your career. Did you prepare any differently for a film like this?

Barry Bostwick: I watched a few tapes on FDR because he had a certain tone to his voice when he was trying to make his points and make his speeches. It was only during those times, the more important times in the movie that I really tried to imitate certain inflections. The other times, I didn't want to try to do a real impersonation because it would get really boring after a while. All you do is watch a guy try to impersonate somebody. So, I researched that and researched things that he had on his body, whether it's a ring or his glasses or his hat or his cigarette holder. With the cigarette holder, I tried to get one that was just about an inch and a half longer than the one he used, something a little bit larger than life that was really what the movie was about, what the style of the movie was. It's a fine balance between the absurd and the real of what his relationships were.

TONY: When you were researching FDR, was there anything about the man that surprised you?

Barry Bostwick: That he was so attached to his mother, but we didn't use that in the film. When you look at it, he was really a momma's boy and his mom lived always very close to him. When he was living in New York, she lived in the apartment next to him. She wanted to blast through the wall and put a door in. I think he said no finally. He came from privilege and that surprised me. And his sense of humor surprised me, which I was able to really just sort of skim over the top of. You look at pictures of him when he's with other men, and he's always the one cracking a joke and looking up to see whether or not they got it and appreciating the fact that people appreciated him.

TONY: This had to be a film that was just a blast to make, a lot of fun, very over the top. For you, when you were on set making this film, how would you describe that element of it?

Barry Bostwick: It gave you a sense of freedom. Over the top-ness is always the most difficult thing to do on film because for one, everybody has to be on the same page and everybody has to be over the top in the same way or it's too inconsistent. You have to have a strong director who has a strong feel for the absurd and how to control the absurd. Then he has to allow you and everybody to go as far as you can at certain times to give that impression. In the scene in which I was finally elected president and everybody in the room did something that was so outrageous, so over the top, that it almost seemed normal, that's what someone would do because everybody was doing the same thing and having a ball doing it. That's the tricky part of these films. And the next scene is Bruce McGill who was in a hallway with somebody, and you pull the whole thing back down to reality. That's the fun of a film like this: You're constantly surprised by its tone.

TONY: Who else do you think would make a great president for a film?

Barry Bostwick: The other Roosevelt, obviously, Ruff Rider guy. He's a man's man: somebody who isn't caught up in the technology of politics these days, somebody who did stump speeches from the back of trains, and did as much fighting in smoke filled rooms. I find that kind of drama more interesting than people controlling everything that they can about