Bronson Pinchot dishes the dirt

October 21st, 2009 at 09:19am Will Pfeifer

The Onion AV Club has interviewed Bronson Pinchot for its “Random Roles” feature, and the actor best known as Balki has some very interesting things to say about his fellow celebs. For example, there’s this about Denzel Washington, whom he worked with on COURAGE UNDER FIRE…

That was a low point, because Denzel Washington was behind the incredibly cowardly bull— of “This is my character, not me.” He was really abusive to me and everybody on that movie, and his official explanation was that his character didn’t like me, but it was a dreadful experience.

Then, there’s this about Eddie Murphy, whom Pinchot worked with in the BEVERLY HILLS COP movies…

Eddie was going through his period at the time of doing movies that were not hits, and he was very low-spirited, low-energy. I said to him, “All anyone ever wants to know when they meet me is what you’re like.” And he said, “I bet they don’t ask that anymore.”

And finally, this bit about Tom Cruise, whom Pinchot worked with on RISKY BUSINESS, before Cruise was one of the biggest stars in the world…

We thought Tom [Cruise] was the biggest bore on the face of the Earth., … He was tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, “You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?” I mean, his lingo was larded with the most… There was no basis for it. It was like, “It’s a nice day, I’m glad there are no gay people standing here.” Very, very strange.

On the other hand, he has very nice things to say about nice guy Tom Hanks…

He is a wonderful and genuine and lovely and down-to-earth person. I don’t know how he does that. I first met him when he was doing his spate of not-successful movies. There was a period in the ’80s when he did THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOW and JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO and all those movies that weren’t doing well, and that’s when I first met him, and I would run into him on and off over the years. Then two years ago, I did a play with his wife, and there he was at his absolute height. He’s always been a delightful person, so it’s not really true that big stars need to be driven and repulsive, because he’s anything but.

Like the AV Club’s interview with Teri Garr a while ago, Pinchot offers a fascinating look at life in showbiz. Read the whole thing here.

Entry Filed under: actors