European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 8, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine of   group Dennl Hopper in ii from to cd vat i tit Flo Mlott of t Penona transition and acting comeback. Celluloid not psychedelia for Dennis Hopper by Richard  new Dayd Ennis Hopper Saems la Ike talking about his addictions to drugs and drink no just in the manner of a reformed abuser wanting to Tell he world he s beaten in bul also in the Way that an old Soldier says y know. The War was t All hell. Some great moments came out of Ltd not us nightmares Hopper was saying in a new York hotel loom dressed in a jacket and tie looking his age which is 50, Hopper was talking about his favorite subject these Days How i Lett the dark world of addiction and became an actor again. A couple of hours later Hopper was talking about in some More on the David Brenner msgr Ftfe show. But this was t Liza Minnelli or Ozzy Osbourne discussing the evils of drugs. This was the cinematic Symbol of 6ds psychedelia the easy rider who seemed almost Loo in Imale with the character he played. A want insane Hopper told Brenner. I was hearing voices and the radio was talking to me and people were being murdered in the next room toll Here was no room next door. I was doing Hall an ounce of cocaine every three Days by myself. It s counterproductive Hopper laughed. Finally i found myself walking around nude somewhere in Mexico. It s amazing i m alive. I com Ltd myself to drug rehabilitation program. I Haven t had an aspirin in three years. My Hie is applause " instructed the sign in the studio and he audience applauded. Welcome to the 80s. There is a connection Between the real life Suke Abe o. Dennis Hopper and  disorders of his various characters a Parade of addicts and lunatics people living on the Edga. Outsiders. You Are what you  Hopper said. I am an accumulation of everything i be Ever  in his current role As the demonic Frank Booth in David Lynch s Blue velvet Hopper portrays a sexual psychotic killer whose drug induced rage seems to leap from the screen and grab the audience by the Throat. In the film he covers his face with a plastic mask and sucks in ostensibly inhaling a drug to intensify his twisted pleasures. It s something Hopper can understand. I hav emotional memory he said i be used these drugs As crutches. When i played an alcoholic. I drank. When t was playing a drug addict. I took drugs. So this time i wondered if i could reach the big emotions feel the big emotions. I said look Man. If you re As Good As you think you Are you go Back and you do your studying it  in Many of his roles Hopper has embodied the outcasts of the times notably the inarticulate hippie biker in easy rider a film he directed and helped write. Now in his most controversial role since then Hopper has exposed another nerve. In a cinematic climate increasingly populated by vicious psychotic criminals both real and imagined Frank Booth May be the synthesis of All the ugliness beneath the surface. "1 think of Frank Booth As being on the inside with the other people on the outside Hopper said you have to go deep into something to find the underground. The outside is the Flowers and the naivete. Frank Booth is in the dark inner world the bowels of the  Hopper a to hav an ambiguous relationship with evil As though he can t completely denounce it. Frank Booth is a  he says almost clinically but he also beams to have an instinctual appreciation saturday november 8. 1986 Tor the character s essence. David Lynch the director of Blue velvet has said that Hopper came to him and told him to have to play Frank because i am  and Hopper when he is being interviewed seems almost an intellectual Zed version of rank. He Speaks with an energized cadence full of thoughts that seem to run into each other As though David Mamet had Willen them As soliloquies for a maniacal method actor. In Blue velvet Hopper said you re dealing Wilh a symbolic surrealistic dim. It s saying this is Good and this is bad. Bad is to be scared by bad is sexual and this is innocent and Beautiful like the scene where Kyle Maclachian and Laura Dern Are sitting outside the Church and talking about dreams and Robins. 1 found a loto lil very  Lynch acknowledges that Hopper was typecast Dennis added things thai i think made Frank to much More Complete and complicated and interesting Hoo Small things the Way he watched Darothy sing White he worked this piece of Blue Velvel just i to love As twisted As it  Hopper s portrayal of Frank Booth comes in the midst of a personal transition and a major comeback. During his visit to new York he wore a Blue Blazer and a striped tie. His Gray hair was combed carefully and straight Back. It is nearly impossible to find a resemblance Between this Dennis Hopper and the Dennis Hopper who represented tha counterculture of the 1960s. I feel at 50comfortable Wilh the Way i look he said. After the Triumph of easy rider the hugely successful Low Budge film that became a kind of Lime capsule of the 60s Hopper began his descent into drugs and disaffection. Directors found him difficult to work with As an actor and studios found him unyielding As a director. He made the apply tilled the last movie in 1971, and then sat out most of the decade. " the last  he said is a great movie which i won the Venice film festival Wilh and which was never shown in this country except for two weeks in new York two weeks in los Angeles and three Days in san Francisco and that was he end of my career As a director i had final Cut so i was in a position to say no to Universal pictures i was t going to re edit the Movia. But they were in a position to see that i never made a movie again. To think that 16 years has to go by and this person never directs again it s  Hopper was to get another Chance at directing in september with a film called marked Lor Lite but Days before shooting was to begin the financing collapsed. I d like to go Back to  he said. After living several years in new Mexico. Hopper returned to los Angeles two years ago. A sign that he was ready i Start Over. He returned to acting Wilh a Rush of Energy accepting virtually All offers and taking no Breaks Between jobs. Besides Blue velvet he has done Hoosier. A soon to be released film in which he plays an alcoholic father and Texas Chainsaw massacre ii in which he plays a former Texas Ranger who seeks vengeance with a Chainsaw of course for Iho murder of his Nephew. Nobody wanted me to do  Huppi said. "1 did it because i thought in would be fun they did t want me to do Blue velvet either. I wanted to do it very badly i loved the script and i really admired David s  he is unselfconscious about his non discriminatory approach to Job offers. You have to do things you re offered or you Don t get work he said. Some of the roles other people did t want. Sometimes Harry Dean Stanton will Call and say i just turned something Down Why Don t you look into it " director Lynch among them have been leery about hiring Hopper because of his Well known work and drag habits. Bui now Hopper is getting a reputation As a sober and cooperative actor. These Days he takes a cynical View of drugs in the 80s but retains a romanticized image of the decade with which he is most closely associated. There was a moment when we were using ourselves As Guinea pigs for civil rights to Slop the War. We were experimenting with drugs. We were having some great times. It was t a big Bummer. Ii became a Bummer when our search for god and truth and All that. And holding hands and finding love and being Flower children and Stop the War suddenly became a big business. Drug dealers took Over we weren t giving it out free anymore. People were Selling hooked on drugs people Ware Oding. Dropping like Flea. But that was t the 60s," the stars and stripes pm 13