MIAMI BOOK FAIR 7
Are there things you don’t miss about the good
old days? The problem for us was survival. We weren’t
making any money and we were scratching to get by, but
I guess what helped somehow was our youthful enthu-
siasm—and optimism, basically.
Day-to-day would seem like, “Oh,
this is hard! What’s gonna hap-
pen?” Sometimes it was almost
deliciously scary that you would
be fighting against these odds.
The reward of having a creative enterprise and having it be accepted is
kind of amazing. It’s not like anything else. You’re at your wits’ end, and
when you make the slightest little bit of a gain, it’s like, “Oh, man, it’s
unbelievable!” You really do get a great feeling.You mention that Marilyn Monroe was a big influence. You de-
scribe her as “a woman playing a man’s idea of a woman”—with
a lot of smarts behind her. That’s Debbie Harry in Blondie too,
isn’t it? To some degree, yeah. I actually don’t think I was as smart as
Marilyn. She was playing with the big boys, you know. The music world
is not quite as cutthroat as the movie business. The more money that’s
being spent to produce a project, the more intense and tense and crazy
it gets. The movie business is definitely in that league.Is your own movie career something you prize a lot? It really is.
I’ve been fortunate to work with some great directors, but I’ve never
been in a position to be a producer or a writer or a director on a film.I’ve always been hired to play a part
or make a cameo, so the responsibil-
ity hasn’t been on my shoulders. But
it’s a tremendous enterprise. Look at
John Waters. He started out from such
an underground position and was so
controversial. Much the same as David
Cronenberg—again, a very controver-
sial, independent director who slowly
built to a point where he was making
very commercial pictures.In your book, you write that “suc-
cess quickly started to feel anticli-
mactic.” Do you still feel that way?
I think I understand the nature of the
business a lot better, and my own nature.
I think I’ve come to an easy resolve about
it. But for a person like me who was not
familiar with showbiz, it was a bit of an
eye-opener. You know, I was kind of
idealistic and foolish—and I’m still kind
of a fool, but at least I have a little
bit more experience.Climate strikes are taking
place all over the world
today. There’s a picture in
the book of you onstage in Argentina last year with the words
STOP FUCKING THE PLANET on your back. Are you
optimistic or gloomy about the future of the planet? Unless we
act very quickly and very seriously, I think we’re in a lot of jeopardy.
I’m not optimistic unless people get on it right away and start appre-
ciating how beautiful the planet is and how desperate the situation is.
Unfortunately, the majority of the world’s population is busy with their
own day-to-day survival. If every single person on the planet took an
hour or two out of their week and did some serious environmental
work—cleaning water, cleaning rivers—it would really be important.
If you talk to [fashion designer and environmental activist] Vivienne
Westwood, she’s much more up on the science. And many scientists are
saying we’re beyond the pale.AN EVENING WITH DEBBIE HARRY
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m.
Building 3, Chapman.“Sometimes it was almost
deliciously scary that you would
be fighting against these odds.”FRO
M^ T
OP
:^ NI
CK
WI
ESN
ER
,^ CH
RIS
ST
EIN
,^ A
LLA
N^ T
AN
NE
NB
AU
M,^
CH
RIS
ST
EIN