Wild On-Set Stories About Working With Christopher Walken That Prove He’s Unlike Any Other Actor

In a discussion published by Interview magazine, fellow actor Mickey Rourke told Christopher Walken, “You were always like this strange being from another place; there was something ‘outer space’ about you.” It’s the best description anyone has come up with for Walken’s unique screen presence, but perhaps unsurprisingly, his off-screen presence isn't all that different. Many of Walken's co-stars from over the years have come forward with stories of what it was really like to work with the zany actor and let's just say, it gets weirder than you think.

1. Walken pretends it’s his birthday… when it’s not

Maggie Q, who starred with Walken in Balls of Fury, revealed in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) that it tickles Walken to pretend it’s his birthday. She wrote, “Because he wants everyone to buy him a cake, and sing to him, and it’s never his birthday when he does this.” An amused Q added, “So, I went up to him on set and I said, ‘It’s not your birthday’ and he chuckled like a child.” 

2. He thinks of himself as a performer, not an actor

Fascinatingly, Walken doesn’t think of himself as an actor. He told newspaper The Guardian in 2012, “I’m never in character.” Explaining himself, he said, “No matter what character I’m playing, it’s me,” and added, “There are actors who can transform themselves, famously so, but I’m not one of them. There’s a crucial difference between an actor and a performer. I’m essentially a performer.”

3. The “genius” Robert De Niro helped him nail a Deer Hunter scene

Walken told magazine Total Film an acting genius helped him crack a difficult scene in The Deer Hunter. He revealed, “I did what he suggested, and the scene turned out to be one of the best in the film. That’s the mark of a genius like Robert de Niro, as opposed to a good craftsman like myself.” He added, “We can learn so much from watching geniuses at work even though we might never reach their level.”

4. He loves the brutal honesty of Hollywood

Hollywood is a harsh, cutthroat environment, right? That’s why there are so many horror stories. Walken thinks differently, though. He told The Guardian, “Well, you know, I’ve always found it to be an honest place. They either want you for a role or they don’t. It’s pretty simple. People talk about Hollywood being this place where you can never get straight answers, but my experience is the opposite.”

5. He’s given a cell phone on movie sets, but doesn’t know how to work one

Walken is an admitted technophobe — he has never owned a computer or sent an email! He also has no cell phone, aside from when studios assign him one during productions. He chuckled to Stephen Colbert, “Sometimes on a movie they’ll give me a cell phone, but it’s more so that they can find me. Like a tracking collar. If I want to use it, someone has to dial it for me — that kind of thing.”

6. Working with younger actors may have softened his view on technology

Walken may have finally seen the benefit of technology recently. While talking with his youthful co-stars in The Outlaws, he mentioned an old actor named Clifton Webb. None of them had heard of him but were able to look him up on their smartphones. A stunned Walken told website Chortle, “It was amazing. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get me one of those cell phones.’”

7. He wanted to be called “Flash” on the Mousehunt set, but no one knew why

If you need someone to play an eccentric exterminator who tries to get into the mind of a mouse in order to trap it, you call Walken. His performance as Caesar in Mousehunt is nothing short of bizarrely brilliant, as is his alleged response when an assistant director asked him how he wanted to be known on set. Walken supposedly replied, “You… can call me Flash!” 

8. He thinks learning lines is the worst thing about his job

When asked by The Guardian about the worst part of his job, Walken answered quickly — and hilariously. He said, “Learning lines, for sure. I don't know how people learn their lines quickly. It's always been a tedious, agonising chore for me. I hate it. It takes me ages to know my lines. I just wish I could do movies with cue cards.” 

9. When Adam Sandler tried to give Walken re-writes, he said, “Nope”

During an appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross to promote Click, Adam Sandler revealed Walken isn’t a fan of rewriting dialogue. Sandler claimed that, when confronted with new lines, Walken simply said, “I already memorized it.” Then, when asked again, Walken reiterated, “But it’s memorized already” and Sandler re-wrote his own dialogue instead. Don’t try and change the man’s lines, he already hates learning them in the first place!

10. His Comfort of Strangers character actually disturbed him

Walken is known for playing villains, but only one has actually gotten under his skin. He told The Guardian that Robert, the manipulative stalker he played in 1990s The Comfort of Strangers, was hard to shake off. The star admitted, “That guy got to me. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but he did. I didn’t want him hanging around and, for a while after the film wrapped, I couldn’t get rid of him.”

11. He said he had a great time on The Stepford Wives despite rumors of a troubled production

The Stepford Wives was plagued with rumors of bad blood between Walken, co-stars Nicole Kidman and Glenn Close, and director Frank Oz. According to Walken, though, he had a great time, and the rumors were absolutely false. He told Total Film, “It was really like a playground every day, all those terrific actors.” He added, “I would love to make another movie with that whole bunch of people.”

12. As he has aged, he’s realized he never wants to make another movie on location

In 2016 Walken admitted to Interview magazine that filming outside exposed to the elements holds little appeal for him anymore. Instead, he’s perfectly happy working on indoor sets! He said, “There are places I don’t want to go. Making movies on tops of mountains, in the desert, playing scenes while icy torrents of rivers rush by. The jungle. It’s very uncomfortable. I want to make movies on a soundstage.” 

13. Stephen Merchant eating his omelette was key to Walken signing up for The Outlaws

To convince Walken to sign up for The Outlaws, which would film in Bristol, England, creator Stephen Merchant drove to Walken’s home in Connecticut. Merchant told Chortle, “‘One of the first things he said was, “Would you like some of this omelette?" He’d made an omelette, which I was not expecting. I’ve subsequently read in an interview that the fact that I ate it was one of the reasons he agreed to do the show.”

14. He doesn’t like his performance in King of New York, despite it being acclaimed

King of New York’s drug lord Frank White is one of Walken’s signature characters — but he thinks he dropped the ball. He told Total Film, “It should have been my best work, but I [messed] up. I’ve only seen the film twice and I felt I didn’t give Frank enough complexity and perspective.” He added, “I wish I had another chance to play him because I would have completely altered my performance.”

15. Walken went to extreme lengths to lose weight for The Deer Hunter

Walken won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the emotionally and physically broken Vietnam veteran Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter. He reportedly went to extraordinary lengths to achieve his haggard, skeletal look in the film’s final act, surviving on a diet of only water, rice, and bananas for a week. The physical commitment certainly paid off, in this case.

16. Walken’s hyper-ventilating improv made Leo panic

Leonardo DiCaprio revealed in a 2002 interview with website IGN that, when Walken hyperventilated during an emotional scene, he could feel panic building. It was simply an improvisation from the veteran actor, but DiCaprio was utterly convinced it was real. He laughed, “I thought the man was having a heart attack in front of me. I honestly was about two seconds away from saying, ‘Cut! There’s something wrong with Chris!’”

17. Keir O’Donnell said Walken gave him a ride for Wedding Crashers

Keir O’Donnell, who played Walken’s son in Wedding Crashers, told Mel magazine Walken requested his driver take both of them to set at the same time every day, like a real father and son. O’Donnell chuckled, “I still don’t know to this day if he was just messing with me, or if he liked the company, even though we never said a word to each other. Either way, it was a special moment for me.”

18. Quentin Tarantino was shocked that Walken performed his dialog verbatim in True Romance

True Romance is famed for an incredible scene between Walken and Dennis Hopper. Quentin Tarantino, who wrote the screenplay, was stunned that Walken memorized his dialogue and said it all verbatim. He said, “It was almost intimidating that such a terrific actor would take my work so seriously as to... never make up anything, never smooth out everything, just say every ‘so,’ ‘the,’ ‘uh,’ and ‘they.’ He did them all, and it was quite terrific.”

19. He steals all his clothes from movie sets

In 2010 Walken wore a very special jacket to an interview with The Independent — the one his character wore in The Comfort of Strangers! He then casually admitted, “I never buy clothes. Whenever I do a movie, all my clothing is from that movie set. They don’t give me anything. I steal.” Hilariously, he confessed that the producers of Batman Returns removed everything from his dressing room before he had the chance to take it!

20. He’s a big fan of his performance in Puss in Boots

In 1988 Walken played a ginger cat transformed into a human in a musical version of Puss in Boots. He even colored his hair red for the part. In 2014 he told magazine Entertainment Weekly, “I thought I was very good as the cat!” He then revealed that he and the cat actor were buddies: “The cat they used, he lived with me in my trailer. He would sleep in the bed.”

21. He is extremely self-conscious about his writing

Like many actors, Walken has dabbled in writing his own scripts over the years. But, as he told Interview magazine, “It never comes to anything.” It seems he has little confidence in his skill as a writer and is very self-conscious about his work. He explained, “If I show somebody something that I’ve written and they say, ‘Eh… alright,’ I just put it away and I never show it to anyone again.”

22. He loved getting romantic with John Travolta in his fat suit as Edna in Hairspray

In Hairspray, Walken gets up close and personal with his on-screen wife Edna — played by John Travolta in a fat suit and prosthetics. Speaking to website Movie Web, Walken marvelled at Travolta’s physical prowess while dancing in the costume and high heels. He said, “It was like carrying a mattress. He had to be very strong underneath that. When I saw him in it, I was awestruck.”

23. Michael Imperioli said Walken went above and beyond for the extras’ reaction shots

In Hollywood, it’s not uncommon for an actor to go back to their trailer the minute they’re off-camera. But Michael Imperioli said Walken didn’t do this on the set of Last Man Standing. He revealed, “Walken was behind the camera doing his lines for extras’ reactions. Not only doing his lines; doing it bigger to be even more generous to these guys. Now that’s a pro. That blew my mind.”

24. He didn’t want to say “Oompah Loompah”

In The Rundown, a fun action-comedy starring Dwayne Johnson and Seann William Scott, Walken plays the villain. At one point, he says, “Oompah-Loompah morons.” Walken reportedly didn’t want to say the line, as he had no idea it meant, having never seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory! So, director Peter Berg showed him the 1971 film, and this convinced him.

25. Walken destroyed a genuine Banksy piece in an Outlaws scene

In The Outlaws, Walken’s character paints over a piece of priceless Banksy street art. Big Talk Productions stated, “We can confirm that the artwork at the end of The Outlaws was an original Banksy, and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it.” Apparently, Banksy is a big fan of Walken, and that’s why he allowed it to happen. Amazing.

26. He claims to sometimes play scenes as if he is Elvis or Bugs Bunny

Walken once told newspaper The New York Times, “Sometimes I do things just to amuse myself. I’ve played scenes pretending that I was Elvis or Bugs Bunny or a U-boat commander. I just don’t tell anybody.” No one really knows if this is true, though, as when the journalist asked further, the mischievous Walken said, “Somebody said to me once, ‘The truth is good, but interesting is better.’”

27. Walken randomly waxed lyrical to Bradley Cooper about how much he loves pineapple

Bradley Cooper does a great Walken impression, and he displayed it during an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Describing Walken, he said, “He is what you think he is, which is different from a lot of people.” He then proceeded to give an example by impersonating Walken saying, “Pineapple… I like to eat it,” out of nowhere, while getting his make-up done. How random!

28. Vanessa Ferlito said Walken played with her cat on-set

During an appearance on the Talking Sopranos podcast, Vanessa Ferlito and the hosts somehow got onto the subject of Walken. All of them had worked with him before, and Ferlito laughed about how, on the set of Stand Up Guys, Walken had requested a production assistant brought their cat to set. Why? Well, because he wanted to play with it all day, of course!

29. Jay Mohr revealed Walken talked at length about how cool it would be to have a tail

One day, while in the make-up trailer on the set of Suicide Kings, Walken was shocked to see co-star Jay Mohr’s dog had no tail. Naturally, this prompted Walken to talk about how awesome it would be to have a tail. According to Mohr, he said, “People could tell when you were angry. They’d go, ‘Get back! Look out! Don’t [mess] with Chris today. Look at his tail!’”

30. Despite playing the Headless Horseman, Walken is scared of horses

In his 2012 interview with The Guardian, the Headless Horseman himself admitted to having a genuine fear of horses. He said, “The last time I did a movie that needed a horse, I said, ‘If it moves, I’m out of here.’ The worst thing is, they know when you’re afraid and act up accordingly. I’ve had them run off on me. Horses I do not like.”

31. Tim Burton was scared of Walken before Batman Returns

Walken can be a frightening guy on film — that much is obvious — but this reputation must precede him in real life as well. Director Tim Burton was reportedly nervous about casting him as Max Schreck in Batman Returns, for example. When casting director Marion Dougherty asked why, he allegedly replied, “Because that man scares the hell out of me.” Well, he certainly gets points for honesty!

32. Heaven’s Gate’s makers forgot to dub out his comment about flying saucers

Apparently, if you listen really closely to a scene in Heaven’s Gate with Walken and Mickey Rourke, you’ll hear Walken mention a flying saucer. Given the picture is a Western set in 1890 and is 100 percent not about aliens, it’s pretty weird. Walken told Interview magazine he said it because a “photographer’s thing” caught his eye, and the filmmakers simply forgot to edit the line out of the movie.

33. A childhood experience at summer camp informed the Deer Hunter Russian roulette sequence

The Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter is one of the most harrowing sequences in movie history. Knowing the depths of emotion Walken was able to tap into in the scene, it’s perhaps strange to find out what his motivation was. He reportedly was thinking about being sent away to summer camp as a child, a time in his life when he felt alone, betrayed, and cut off from his loved ones.

34. He hates punctuation and tends to disregard it

Walken’s line delivery is legendarily bizarre and hard to predict. Perhaps it’s because, as he revealed to The New York Times, he resents punctuation. He explained, “Sometimes when I see a question mark in a script, I’ll deliberately make it a statement. Or if something has an exclamation point, I’ll make it a question, just to see what will happen. Punctuation can be a stumbling block, so I take it out.”

35. He hates when productions try to “Walkenize” a role

Over the years, Walken has developed a reputation for playing strange, off-kilter characters. But he told The New York Times, “Sometimes I take a job and then they decide to what I’ve come to call ‘Walkenize’ it. Suddenly I’ll become a little more zany or wild.” While you may think he’d love this, he actually hates it, saying, “I prefer to play the part that I prepared for. I don’t like surprises.”

36. He watched everyone film his Deer Hunter funeral scene from some nearby bushes

In a truly surreal moment, Walken was able to watch his own funeral while hidden in some nearby bushes. Well, he watched his character Nick’s funeral in The Deer Hunter, at least! On TV’s Off the Cuff he told Peter Travers, “I went and hid in the bushes, and I watched everybody being sad. I had a real day off because they were burying me.” 

37. Jenny McCarthy said Walken smelled like formaldehyde

In the superbly-titled Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead, Walken plays a paraplegic gangster. His nurse is played by Jenny McCarthy and, when she appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, she explained how Walken went a bit method for the role. She claimed he kept taking small bites of a rotten apple he housed in his pocket. Oh, and he stank of formaldehyde. Gross.

38. He makes sure to dance, even just a little bit, in most of his roles

When you find out Walken began his career as a dancer, everything starts to make sense. It’s why he nailed the moves in the Fatboy Slim “Weapon of Choice” music video, and it’s why so many of his characters love to dance. In fact, in 2014 he admitted to Entertainment Weekly, “For a long time, if I was in a scene, and I just had a moment free to do that, I would throw in a little step.”

39. His Batman Returns character wears cufflinks made from human teeth

While putting together Max Schreck’s look for Batman Returns, Walken remembered how a character in The Great Gatsby — Meyer Wolfsheim — wore cufflinks made from human molars. Yes — cufflinks made of teeth. The grotesque evil suggested by that appealed to Walken, and he wanted Schreck to do the same in the movie. Naturally, he got his wish!

40. Child actor Chandler Lindauer had to listen to all of Walken’s monolog

Walken’s Pulp Fiction monolog about a watch being hidden inside a certain orifice is one of the best scenes in the movie. Amusingly, Chandler Lindauer, who played young Butch, was on set for the entire soliloquy. He had to listen to every crude, foul-mouthed word, yet luckily was so young that he didn’t truly understand what was being said. To this day, it’s his one and only acting credit.