The Aesthete

Crazy For You

New York City actor Matthew Modine waxes poetic about toast and jam, the New York of the past and sharing a trailer with Madonna

by George Wayne

MY LIFE AT HOME IS ALL ABOUT... Spending downtime with my beautiful wife Cari. We are empty-nesters. Our only son has moved to Hollywood to work at Warner Brothers and our only daughter is away in college. So Cari and I are home alone in the West Village. When I am not away working on location (for instance I have just returned from some time in Chicago after working on the next Batman movie and two other films) I am usually up at around 7am on a typical day in New York City. I wake up, shower, and have my morning fix of freshly Black Russian style bread from Whole Foods. I like my toast each morning smothered with an organic berry jam and I have my coffee with milk. And honestly, if I wake up a bit late I sit with my toast and watch the Wendy William Shows at 11am. If I have no meetings that day, I tend to go riding all over the city on my bike. I have an Old Dutch bike from Holland that has a vintage style design but completely advanced and modern in every other way. My favorite bike shop is HUD owned by friend George Bliss and it's also in the West Village. Any problems I have with my bicycles, good ole' George is always able to remedy.

I will tell you that lately I have been spending time at home reading a range of different scripts. It's been a very good twelve months for me and my craft... I have a new film with Eva Mendes coming out
this year called Girl In Progress, another film with Kristen Chenoweth called Family Weekend, and then of course The Dark Knight Rises. I wish I could tell you more about my role in the Batman three-quel — if I am a villain or a good guy — but I had to sign three separate confidentiality agreements!  

IF THERE IS ANYTHING ECCENTRIC ABOUT ME... It would be the fact that I am a dilettante. I also love music and lately I have been playing Music Video Director for a couple of music videos — ''Plastic Jesus'' and ''As Tears Go By'' for the band Ruby Wilder. I wanted to help promote their new album and the edgy rock sound they cultivate.

HAPPINESS IS AN OPTION BECAUSE... Sadness is futile.

WHEN IN DOUBT... Punt.

WHAT STRIKES ME MOST ABOUT NEW YORK CITY IN THE MILLENNIA IS... That “they” are still building it. I am tired of all the construction. I am tired of all these new buildings. It's not about sticking to the past and not wanting to see growth and progress, but I just don't feel that this is a city of vast diversity any more. And they forever keep on trying to make it harder and harder for the working class and the young dreamers to be able to come to New York City and try and gain their part of the American dream. As the 21st Century evolves in New York City, I hate to say it, but I feel that it has become even more a city of the haves and the have-nots.

There used to be a time a young actor coming to New York City to try and make a career could find a place to live, especially in Manhattan, but you can't do that anymore.

MADONNA AND I SHARE A HISTORY... Because I was the star of the very first movie she ever did. It was called VisionQuest, and she had a bit part and sung the theme song for the film which she called “Live To Tell”. At the time she was just becoming famous, just at the very beginning of her ride to superstardom and she was dating a DJ by the name of Jellybean Benitez. VisionQuest was a small, independent film, so Madonna and I had to share a trailer, so of course the walls were paper thin. And I would be in my half of the trailer, and she would be across the partition in her's... There was always a lot of screaming and hollering going on. Madonna, it seemed was always shouting at Jellybean because he had not proposed to marry her. Of course that never did happen, but I will always remember the huge shouting matches coming from her end of the trailer.

THE LAST GREAT BOOK I READ... is titled The Terrible Love Of War by the author James Hillman.