While the jury is still out on Bruce Willis' trial in our own Movie Jail, the 58-year-old actor has been making waves in a string of interviews while promoting his latest efforts in the action genre, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD and RED 2. His latest interview comments, following a cryptic Tweet by THE EXPENDABLES star Sylvester Stallone, reveal what many have suspected for a long time now; Bruce Willis is bored. Bored of what, exactly? In an interview with the Spanish Magazine XLS, the actor was asked for his opinion on action movies and was quoted as saying:
"Explosions are one of the most boring parts of my job. When you have seen a few fireballs, it's not exciting anymore. I know part of my audience enjoys the explosions, but to be honest, I’m a bit bored of it now."
Not a surprising comment given his recent lackluster appearances while promoting his latest jaunts in the genre. He went on to say:
"I am very clear with who I am. I work in all sorts of films, but the action movies are the ones that generate the most revenue. I like to earn lots of money from those, but I do all types: small productions, megaprojects, medium sized, even science fiction."
Willis continued, saying that he's not "someone who spends the whole day counting bank notes" or "dance for joy" when he received payment for his films. It's hard to decipher what that means, especially within that context, but one thing is for certain and that's that Willis is definitely showing his lack of enthusiasm for the action genre both in the promotional interviews and the films themselves.
Really, I think it's a good thing that he's bored with the genre and perhaps he can move forward into some other material that suits his sensibilities. The problem is that Willis was made famous by the action genre, not his small, dramatic turns. That said, he did a fine job for Wes Anderson in last years MOONRISE KINGDOM and I'd be happy to see him move in another direction. The question is, can he separate himself from those huge paydays in order to do less bankable work? That's the dilemma, I'd think.
Willis will next be seen in Robert Rodriguez's SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR on August 22, 2014, as well as the action pics AMERICAN ASSASSIN, EXPIRATION, and of course, DIE HARDEST.
Of course, Willis getting out of the action genre would really put a hurtin' on these guys…