Rarely do you get to chat with a living legend, but that happened to me when I got to speak
to the one and only Wayne Newton, a Las Vegas staple and consummate entertainer (going
way back). The occasion was the Blu-ray (and 3D Blu-ray) release of
Hoodwinked Too: Hood Versus Evil, but, really, do you need an excuse to chat
with Wayne Newton?
In
Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil, an animated bouillabaisse of
Rocky and
Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairy Tales,
Shrek and Bill Willingham's
Fables
comic series, Newton plays a anthropomorphic harp named Jimmy Ten Strings who works for
a thuggish ogre. While the movie isn't exactly Pixar-level, it has a certain demented spirit,
and Newton, playing the harp and riffing off his own long-established Vegas persona, is an
absolute highlight.
How were you approached to take part in Hoodwinked Too?
The director Mike Disa called me maybe two years ago and he said, "Listen, I'm thinking
about writing a character for this film called Jimmy Ten Strings and I want to pattern it after
you." And I said, "Pattern as in looking like me or my persona or what?" Then he told me
about the character and said, "Would that be something you're interested in playing?" I said,
"As long as you give me a little liberty for how I play the character, I'd love to play it." Time
goes on, I didn't hear anything. About two years pass and one day I get a call from Mike and
he said, "Do you remember me?" I said sure but reminded him that it was three years ago.
He told me that they had put it all together and they're right where they needed to be. "But
here's the problem," he said. "I wrote this part for you and we have done the part with two
or three other people because the producers wanted to try other people. And they just didn't
bring it off. We figured we'd go back to the guy we wrote this for. Are you still interested?"
And I said, "Of course!" Then he said, "Here's the other problem – we're going to have to
come out to Las Vegas right away, go into the studio, and you will not have the benefit of
knowing what the full script. The only time we'll have is for you to do your lines." So they
came up, and that's how it all came about.
What did you end up adding to the character?
I grew up in Las Vegas at a time when a snitch was not a compliment. [Laughs] The 50s and
60s and 70s, if you were a snitch they found you in a desert somewhere. So I said to Mike,
"Can I play this character a little more like a Dean Martin guy? Because Dean was a guy who
when he was playing a character, if he was for it he was for it, when he was against it, he
gave in if it was the only way for the caper to go forward." So I played him like he doesn't just
roll over immediately. Mike said, "Try it!" And we did and it worked. Sometimes Mike would
say, "What would Wayne Newton say to this?"
Did you get to adlib anything?
Yes I did. For example, when they kidnap Jimmy Ten Strings and I say, "Hey hey you want
Frank Sinatra, Jr.! He's down the street!" That was all me. Because I said that we should try
to make this a little believable in terms of the character and what kind of character he is. And
he is a guy who si a dyed in the wool lounge act.
Was the last minute replacement of the other actors the reason the character doesn't
look like you?
Well, the original character, when he sent it to me two years ago, it did look more like me. It
had the pompadour hair and I think what he was looking for was not so much a mirror image
of Wayne Newton but kind of a mirror image of a lounge act. And that lounge act could look
almost anyway as long as he carried the "Hey, you're a great audience" attitude.
Did you see this as a way to get the Wayne Newton brand out to a younger audience?
Let me tell you what happened: I had said to my wife, and we have a nine-year-old, "I want
to do something one of these days that we can take her to," as corny as that may sound.
Because so much of what I've done as an actor she can't see until she grows up. So we went
to see the movie and she loved it. It wasn't important to her that Daddy was playing Jimmy
Ten Strings, she just liked Jimmy Ten Strings. Historically my wife would take our baby to
school and typically I'd pick her up since I wake up at about noon or one o'clock. When you're
a school dad or a school mom the kids kind of take you for granted, the parents will wave or
say hello. So I went to pick her up after the movie came out and I'd notice kids would kind of
pool together and point. Kids are not used to hiding their feelings. So we got in the car, "What
was that all about?" And she said, "They're talking about the movie you just did." The next
day I went to pick her up and the bell rang and all the kids came rushing out of their classes
and all of the kids rush up to me with pieces of paper for an autograph. I thought they'd want
it for mommy or somebody, and I said, "Who would you like this to?" And the kid would say,
"Me!" And I realized that one film had done that job.