Christopher Walken Opens Up About His Odd Celebrity Presence, How Fans Treat Him

Christopher Walken has been famous for as long as I can remember and a strangely compelling yet vaguely unsettling presence too.

My first Christopher Walken memory was watching him in something in the 80s, and my mom’s best friend commenting that she didn’t “trust that guy” because he was one of the only people with Natalie Wood when she died. I guess it kind of stuck.

Circumstances aside, Christopher Walken has a very unusual intensity about him, and the actor recently sat down for an interview to discuss his fame and interactions with the public. Of fan reaction, Walken relates what it’s like to mix at the airport:

“When I was younger, everyone would ask, ‘Would you sign this for me?’ Nobody does that anymore. Now it’s, ‘Can I take your picture?’ But’s it’s not really, ‘Can I take your picture?’ It’s ‘Can I have your picture with me?’ So you have to stand there as they put their arm around you. The whole thing is just out of hand.

“You get your picture taken. With the person. And it never works the first time. So it’s ‘Do you mind if I do that again?’ I understand why somebody like Johnny Depp just decides to stay in his room.”

But Walken himself has resisted the tsunami of tech, and he explains:

“And I don’t have a cellphone. I don’t have a computer. It used to be that between takes, actors would just sit around and talk about something. Or they’d play cards. There was a lot of card playing. Now everybody’s got their iPad. And I don’t.”

Would you approach Christopher Walken for a quick TwitPic?