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Show David Carridiiie Talks About i , Self Direction in 'Americana' Carradine is so fully obsessed with film that, unlike Redford, he doesn't make time for personal causes like solar energy or environmental preservation. To a question about what he does in his spare time away from filmmaking, he leans forward and replies impatiently, impa-tiently, "You just don't understand, do you?" "No, David, I don't understand," I admit. "Einlighten me." "My life is totally absorbed ab-sorbed with experimenting and finding out about every aspect of film," Carradine explains. "Right now, I've - got about 400,000 feet of film I'm looking at, and when I'm not doing something about film, I'm thinking about it.. ..I even take baths instead of showers, because I can't think in the shower. Sometimes I leap out of the tub with a new idea about a film." At 43 years, Carradine appears to have tempered , his self-assurance more with dedication to art than to ego. His confidence in what he is doing is complete enough to sometimes sound cocky -like when I asked him if he thinks "Americana" will be as well-received elsewhere as it was in Park City. Carradine simply flashes a broad grin and counters, "Hey, do you think the sun will rise tomorrow?" By Katherine Janka David Carradine directed, produced, starred in, edited, and even wrote a song for his U.S. Film and Video Festival entry, "Americana." But he didn't so much as flinch when he heard Robert Redford tell- the Sunday wrap-up session, "It would be hard to maintain the' objectivity necessary as a director if I were acting in the same film." and The Longriders is suddenly just another re-relaxed re-relaxed guy out for a silly Sunday in Park City. Although it must be his umpteenth interview on the subject, Carradine genuinely enjoys talking about "Americana," "Ameri-cana," a film about a Vietnam veteran who wanders wan-ders into a small Kansas town and pursues a one-man crusade to renovate the broken down local merry-go-round. "I had no particular the camera to behind it." As Carradine describes the loosely collaborative of the shooting of his film, his relaxed directing style appears to differ markedly from Redford' s studied approach. ap-proach. "Everybody was into everything on the set. There was no real division of labor. Like, we all worked on painting the merry-go-round." Executive producer Skip Sherwood adds, "One of the things I like best about seeing the movie is watching the horse I painted on that Merry-go-round." Of course, Carradine was involved in a film budgeted at about $800,000, compared to Rcdford's cool $8 million. Money raising problems plunged "Americana" into fits and starts that resulted in a seven-year gap between the decision to make the picture and its public release. . V ' X ' - v " A. ; - ... , v s , - S '". ,,.;:::J'i'-----;:;.:.w- - ' ' ' " ..:::'; ",,-,-vV. V f t , " v . - ' r A v . i I : V iV : N w7 - r' S . . .I in i inn II i- David Carradine "Redford would have a totally different problem in trying to direct himself than I do," explained Carradine. "Here he is with the perfect face and physique, besides the tremendous reputation. It's hard to be all that and direct yourself at the same time. For me, it's different. After all, do I look like Robert Redford?" No, David Carradine does not resemble Robert Redford in any way. As we enter Jody's for wine and an interview, he breaks into a spontaneous jig to the melody coming from the speakers. I half expect him to spout forth with, "Hey man, this is where it's at." Instead, he heads for a couch in front of the fireplace and launches a teasing byplay with his wife; Linda - culminating when he tosses a bolster cushion her way. California-clad in soft leather jacket and jeans, the star of Kung Fu, Bound for Glory, longing to direct until I heard that story about ten years ago. It had the quality of something you dream about, and it became utterly irresistible irresis-tible for me," he explains. Directing turned out to be equally irresistible, "I can relate to what Redford said about turning to directing because you get bored with acting," confirms Carradine. "Shooting a movie amounts to rehearsals and about 40 j minutes of acting a day, out of which maybe two minutes end up counting. You spend a lot of time sitting around in your trailer or getting into name-dropping conversations. conversa-tions. That's how I got time to learn the guitar and take up marshal arts." Carradine says the biggest ..surprise-in -his first directing endeavor was, "Discovering how easy it is. Everybody just did what I said, without being the least bit forced. I think it helped that they saw me dashing from in front of |