Christopher Walken’s fancy feet

last updated 8 January 2015

Christopher Walken missed his calling, said David Michael in Total Film. “I’m not really an actor, I’m a dancer,” he says. Walken, 67, started his career in musicals, and says his acting career happened “by chance.” In 1977, he was cast in Annie Hall and The Deer Hunter, and soon found a niche as an actor playing “villains and people who are disturbed.” But he never forgot his dancing roots, and was thrilled when he got the chance to strut his stuff in 1981’s Pennies From Heaven.

Since then, Walken says, he’s always tried to sneak dance moves into his performances. One of his fondest film moments came in 1986’s At Close Range, when he improvised “quite a nice tour jeté. I take a couple of steps and spontaneously jump and spin in the air for no reason.” The fancy footwork led to roles in two music videos featuring Madonna and Fatboy Slim and a strange phone call from Marlon Brando in his later days. “He said, ‘You did a movie called Pennies From Heaven. I’d like to get in touch with the choreographer. I dance.’ He wanted to do a musical variety show from his house. He was very serious. He also told me he lost 100 pounds eating Saltines and drinking milk. It was very funny.”