Die Hard is one of the original action packed movies, however it’s a Christmas cult classic. That’s what it is; Argyle said so!
It’s usually around this time of year that people start to say, «I’ve seen you somewhere before!» It’s not all the time, but it happens and I’m always surprised, because it was 33 years ago that I played Argyle in Die Hard. When I was in my early 20s, Lee Daniels, who is now a huge director and producer in Hollywood, was managing me. He was talking to Jackie Burch, the casting director, because they were friends, and she told him she was looking for a kid for a new Bruce Willis movie. They needed someone to be an upbeat, funny limo driver and Lee suggested me for the role. So they set up a meeting for me with the producer Joel Silver and Bruce Willis. At that time, Bruce had been on the show Moonlighting and he was known for TV but, with all respect, he wasn’t «Bruce Willis» yet; he wasn’t a megastar. I just knew he was a star doing a major film with Joel Silver. I went in and just said to myself: do your best, that’s all you can do. I read with them once and they asked me to do it again, so I read it a little differently, a little more upbeat. I remember I went home and there were messages on my answering machine—yes, I’m a dinosaur!—and it was Lee saying they wanted me for the role of Argyle. Die Hard was shot in and around Fox Plaza in LA and on my first day on set I read with the director John McTiernan, who I knew was huge. We started to read and I said my line about why John McLane hadn’t bothered to pack much. John McTiernan looked at me and asked if I had studied the chemistry and the objectives in the scene. I was just used to going on energy, but I told him I had memorized the lines. He pulled me to the side, and looked at me with these piercing eyes. I will never forget it, and I loved him for this; he told me that Bruce’s character was a cop and he and his wife were separating, so he was going to see her with one bag, hoping that they will get back together and live happily ever after. He asked if I got it. I said yes and that was it. I learned what acting was and that was definitely my favorite line. Once I had that breakthrough with John, we got on really well and he understood me. Bruce took it seriously, that’s just his demeanor. He’s cool and focused and I loved that. He’s a good guy and had studied and knew what to do, so when we did the scene together, we started having so much fun that John said to do our thing and we just adlibbed. There were a couple of times we did need to stop because we were laughing. The scene at the airport where I had the sign and my shades on was then hilarious for me, because it was my character’s first day on the job, but we had already done the scene in the car so I was in the groove of acting. I am driving the limo, but there was a camera on the window and guys in the back and the front seats and the crew made sure that we were protected and it was safe. Everyone on Electric Boulevard, where we were driving, knew there was a movie crew in the car. I am also driving in the scene later when I’m pulling into the garage, but I wasn’t in the driving seat when the limo drives into the terrorists’ truck, that was a stunt guy.
