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Dr. Pepper
by Brandon Judell, June, 2001
Photos by Catherine Ledner

Just call him the Thoreau of Hollywood.  How many other actors would postpone an interview because they had to repair a fence?  Barry Pepper, the praying sharpshooter of Saving Private Ryan, a guard in The Green Mile and the last hope for us humans in Battlefield Earth, wants the simple life.  Living on a farm outside Vancouver with his wife and daughter, Annaliese, this is one rising star you won't find noshing on carpaccio in a trendy LA eatery, not when he has enough manure and a rifle at hand.

     "We have our own garden, and my family raises their own beef and lamb and chicken," Pepper explains.  "And if I ever have the desire for a wild duck feast, I go out and shoot one.  For some people, it's a very necessary way of life.  For us, it's a choice.  A healthy choice.  It's a way for us to get back to the land."

      Considering that when Pepper was five, his family built a boat and sailed to Fiji, Tahiti and New Zealand before settling on an island populated by hippies, Barry's current lifestyle is not totally unexpected; especially since his mother had him schooled in rugby, football, baseball, sculpture and ballet to boot.

     Ballet?

     "I was the only boy in the entire class, causing me to really identify with Billy Elliott.  That was a great movie, man.  Break dancing.  Jazz ballet.  Modern dance.  It was a great foundation.  It wasn't until later on, in the teenage years, that I sort of got a little ribbing.  But when the guys saw all the beautiful young girls I was hanging out with, they let it ride.  Then when break dancing became popular in '86, all the local neighborhood kids were like, 'Hey, teach me how to do that!'"

     Now after they watch Pepper become Roger Maris in HBO's 61*, directed by Billy Crystal, they might start begging for batting tips.  The year is 1961, and Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) is battling his teammate Maris to break Babe Rth's 1927 single-season mark of 60 home runs.  Expect a bundle of Emmy nominations next year, including one for Pepper as Best Actor.

     "You know, Roger smoked three packs of non-filtered Camels a day.  So I started smoking.  It was just an actor's choice.  They didn't make me; but obviously, in every scene Roger's smoking.  And one of my biggest pet peeves, besides listening to piss-poor accents in movies, is watching people smoke that don't really smoke.  They never inhale, and it just sort of looks so tragically phony.  So, whenever a character that I'm playing has to smoke, I will insist on inhaling.  Fortunately, I'm not an addictive person, so I can give it up when I got home at night.  But yeah, those non-filters are just nasty, just absolutely foul on the lungs and they'd get all wrapped around and twisted in my head.  I'd be just completely dizzy.  Then, they would bring in the medic and oxygen, and I would be throwing up in the bushes, and Billy would yell, 'Action!' So I'd wipe my mouth on the back of my sleeve and away we'd go.  It was pretty rough, but at least it certainly added a lot of realism to the performance."

     His new mob drama, Knockaround Guys, was slightly easier on his stomach.  In fact, co-stars Dennis Hopper and John Malkovich had him in stitches throughout.  "I saw it not long ago and it was a lot of fun.  A really well-balanced, unique sort of take on the whole 'Oops! I lost the bag of money' movie.  It's really refreshing and cool.  It's hip.  It's young, and it's fast."

     "It was my first lead.  I had never sort of been at the helm of a picture before in that way.  I'm really pleased.  I learned so much from working with Dennis and John.  They really took me to school in a lot of ways.  We had a blast.  they were constantly cutting up and keeping everybody on their toes.  You know, it's funny that they're perceived as so bizarre.  They're just two very brilliant men, very well-read, really interesting, with eclectic backgrounds.  You can't ask for a better acting class than working with guys like that."