We know from media coverage of your own problems with alcohol that the film's chronicle of alcoholism and its effect on the family is personally relevant to you.

I'm a public figure, and I do what I do. So I went to treatment for alcoholism. I wasn't allowed to do that anonymously, because it was a good story. I understand, "Gary: rehab." I decided to come clean, excuse the pun, and not go on The Bryant Gumbel Show and say, "Oh yeah, I disappeared for awhile because of nervous exhaustion." In a way I was challenged; I was forced to say, "I have this illness and I suffer from this." I don't know many people who in some ways, their lives aren't affected by "the ism"—by alcohol and drug-taking and all those other things we put under the umbrella.

Hollywood is getting a bad rap now for hiring actors who have serious substance- or alcohol-abuse problems, and go to jail. Do you have any comment?

I don't think about people not working, because people going into recovery and cleaning up is primarily about change. So, people can change. But if someone commits a crime . . . I don't particularly think Christian Slater should be washing cars and making coffee. He should be in a cell without a fax machine, without a phone, and without a TV, just like everyone else.

It's a sad thing. We just had Danny Baldwin run riot in a hotel in New York [allegedly after overdosing on vials of crack cocaine]. It makes me think about some of the issues the movie deals with: You do that and it's not just yourself you're hurting. It's the whole family. Everybody's touched by that and not just Danny. I've met him, and he's a very, very sweet man. I just hope he can work it out.

Did you ever feel you were in danger of spinning out of control? Of not getting hired? Would you call yourself self-destructive?

There was an element of self-destruction. I think that's part of it. When you're out there, kind of bouncing off the walls a bit, you get to the point where actually not feeling good becomes a very familiar feeling. When things are going well, it's something you're not used to. So you try something, you kick up the dust.

Did you feel some kind of a need, then, to make Nil by Mouth your writing and directing debut as opposed to some other story?

Nil by Mouth was inside of me. I've been a native of New York for ten years, so a lot of my experiences have been American, and at first I wrote a couple of things that were based there. But my gut told me that if I was going to come out of the gate as a director, then it should be a very personal story that comes from me. I had to go back to Britain, to London, to where I grew up. I'm not comparing myself at all, but it's no surprise that Scorsese keeps going back to that Italian neighborhood he's closest to.

I finally decided to take the time off and say, "Even if Mr. Scorsese calls, I'm not going to do his movie. I have to have this time for me and write this story." Because I was just too busy and this story was swimming around my head. But I had to get clean to do it. I had to be in the solution; I couldn't be in the problem. I couldn't sit down over a bottle of wine and write this stuff. Most people are a lot sicker than we think they are. It's either drugs or alcoholism. What I've tried to do is break the cycle.

The Clapton score is so perfect. How did his involvement happen?

Eric saw the movie [in L.A.] before I'd even approached him about it and we had a temp track on it which I knew we had to replace. Eric very much connected with the piece on a lot of levels. He said, in his own words, "I'll do the music for you because it's right up my Strater."

Your mother sings "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," from Showboat, at the end of the film. And your older sister, who's never acted before, plays Kathy Burke's mother under the pseudonym Laila Morse. Obviously Nil by Mouth was in some sense a family affair, but have any members of your family expressed discomfort about the subject matter?

What I used, I used with respect and discretion. I disguised it enough, I think. I smoothed the edges. They've seen the film and they're very happy and very moved by its honesty. That's what I set out to do, to make something from my heart. In that way I hope I've not disgraced them but served them with dignity.

You make big Hollywood films like Air Force One and The Fifth Element, and then you make this intensely personal film. Do you see any kind of a pattern in your role choices?

You mean one for them and one for me? That could well be what was making me cry at Cannes: I'd just watched my performance in Fifth Element. Anyone would [cry]. And Air Force One would certainly subsidize one of my own movies. [Smiles.] Actually, I enjoyed working with [AFO director] Wolfgang Petersen, and technically it's very well made, but it's not my cup of tea. I'm not always in the movies I would want to go and see.

What about playing Dr. Zachary Smith, another villain, in Lost in Space?

Well, I've seen a great deal of Lost in Space now. They're still doing a bit of work on it. From what I've seen, it's going to be a crack in the box! And it's nice to be in a movie my kids [two boys, two and nine years old] can see.

You must be enthusiastic—aren't you committed to do another one as well?

I think it's two. But we'll have to see how this one does, if people get out there and buy tickets.

You'll turn forty on March 21. How do you feel about that milestone?

I feel pretty good about it. I wouldn't want to be twenty-one again, that's for sure. I'd rather be thirty than forty, but I'm happy to be forty.

By Stephen Schaefer

(Copyright: Mr Showbiz site)