all my obsessions are here

Brad Renfro in the July 1997 issue of Sugar magazine.

(Photo by mysocalleddream)

I have recently been uploading old 1990s photos and interviews from my high school magazine collection. I’ve added ones of Jared Leto and Leonardo DiCaprio, so here now is my Brad Renfro collection.

I think this particular interview is an absolute treasure, a total find, as Renfro mentions my favourite actor, River Phoenix. It’s very sad to hear him talk of being compared to River Phoenix, unaware then that the comparison people would eventually make between him and River would be his similar untimely death and drug overdose, and not his great acting talent. Very, very sad indeed.

This interview also gives an insight into Brad Renfro’s difficult childhood, his hard life, and also his special relationship with his grandmother, which I always thought was very sweet. (A couple of weeks after he died, his grandmother also passed away. Perhaps from a broken heart…)

In the interview, Renfro says that he doesn’t have many friends, “I find it hard to trust people now - everyone I’ve ever trusted has given me the short end of the stick.“ He then says that his only friend is his agent, which is heartbreaking! He was 15 years old and the only person he trusted, that he considered a friend, was essentially a person that he paid for their loyalty, his agent! So sad!

He also talks of his parents and it sounds like he felt really abandoned by both of them; his mother moved to another state and his father remarried. Even though he talks of how it hurt him, he says it was quite “selfish” of him to feel this way. I find this really shocking. Again, Brad is 15 years old in this interview and doesn’t even think he is entitled to his own parent’s love!!! What must he have been through in the years leading up to this to ever think this?! Unreal.

Brad also goes on to mention outright that he doesn’t take drugs, he says “I don’t do drugs - I’m not stupid." I think that it’s obvious from this interview that he was hurting a lot during his teenage years and obviously that pain became too much to bear. 

Interview for Dennis Cooper / 1998

Dennis Cooper: Your agent said you’re not feeling well.

Brad Renfro: It’s just stress. Being in L.A. does this to me.

DC: You live in Knoxville, which looks very nonstressful in pictures.

BR: Yeah, it’s cool, but it’s getting violent these days.

DC: What’s up?

BR: Well, this guy got shot last week outside a club, and he died. A friend of mine works at this café right by there. Luckily, she wasn’t there at the time, but the café’s windows got shot out. So it’s not too scary to live there yet, but for such a small town, that seems pretty hard-core.

DC: So where would you move, if you moved?

BR: Not here, that’s for sure. You can be young and stupid anywhere, but staying in Knoxville keeps me away from the business itself, the whole grind—everybody going out to eat and such. It keeps me real. ’Cause out here, there isn’t much reality. There really isn’t. That’s why Tennessee Williams stayed in the South.

DC: So you don’t have any Leonardo DiCaprio envy?

BR: No, no. He’s a great actor, and now he can’t do anything. It used to be I’d see him all over the damn place, and he wouldn’t get too bothered. But now, phew. Man.

DC: Talk about demystifying fame.

BR: No shit. I don’t know if the money would be worth it, either. Because he does make bank. He makes a lot of money. Hell, I haven’t even made a million dollars. But is $20 million worth no life? I don’t think so.

DC: You and he are both top dogs in the Tiger Beat scene. Does that have any value for you?

BR: No. I’m quite flattered, but I don’t know what to think of it. I don’t strive to be a teen idol, you know? But the teen-idol thing is probably why I’m able to pick and choose the movies I want, because I have those fans. Who says those teens don’t have the right idea? You’re always going to have those who look at you because you have interesting looks or whatever.

DC: It’s not like your films cater to that audience. For the most part, they’re fairly heavy. I guess Tom and Huck is kind of the oddball in your oeuvre, as it were.

BR: Yeah, well, I don’t regret making that movie, because my little sister loves it. It’s just that I thought I was making an American classic, and it was very Disney family. If you really watch, you can see that I’m not in the same damn movie as the other actors. I’m all hard-core and shit, and it seems like I’m bigger than the rest of them. There’s an edge there that doesn’t really fit, but to me, that was Huck. Who’s to say it was tobacco in his pipe, you know?

DC: Disney didn’t want a hard-core Huck?

BR: Not at all. It was constant friction. I just did it and got through it, because it was my job. But, you know, I maybe showered six times the whole damn shoot. That’s where I got this bad reputation, you know. How I’m, like, whatever…

DC: Trouble.

BR: Yeah, trouble.

DC: But you’re not?

BR: No, I’m not. I’m real. Real only seems like trouble if you’re not real yourself. Honest to God.

DC: You seem drawn to characters who have moral dilemmas.

BR: As in, like…?

DC: I think I’ve seen all your films, and from The Client through The Cure, Telling Lies in America and now Apt Pupil, you seem to play the wide-eyed kid with a secret dark side.

BR: Well, that’s me, but that’s also mankind. Someone asked me about Apt Pupil—you know, “Brad, are you saying people are evil?” And I go, “All people have evil natures.” And they go, “What about babies?” And I go, “What about when babies turn two and start fighting in the crib over a toy?”

DC: Babies are purely selfish beings.

BR: Exactly. They are purely selfish. I love children, but….It’s human nature to constantly be in a fight with your own being.

DC: So Apt Pupil must have played into your interests.

BR: Definitely, definitely. I was really excited to get that part. It was the only really cool film at the time. Well, there was that and American History X, as far as what was available to someone my age. And Bryan Singer’s great. Ian McKellen’s a genius to me.

DC: Your styles are so different, though. His acting is so capital-B British, really organized, and—

BR: I’m so off the wall? Yeah, I learned so much from Ian McKellen, but it wasn’t like I could learn the craft of acting. I’m sure you’ve heard of doing something and not knowing how you do it? That’s pretty much where I come from. What interested me about him was how he handled people. He makes everyone feel so comfortable. I tried to learn that from him, because that’s something I need to learn.

DC: How do you approach acting?

BR: Just saying the words and believing them. I literally believe what’s going on is really happening.

DC: Is it like fantasizing?

BR: Pretty much. I’m a person who doesn’t show a ton of emotion until it’s time. I ball too many things up—to the point where I cry for no reason. And I have to sit down and go, “What the hell is this for? Oh yeah, right.”

DC: So I guess I have to ask you about the whole Apt Pupil shower-scene controversy.

BR: I was there.

DC: A number of the extras, who are basically your age, said they were ogled by gay crew members during the shooting of that scene and consider it a form of molestation.

BR: I was there. I didn’t notice anything.

DC: So you don’t support the boys who brought the lawsuit against the film?

BR: No. As far as I know, it got thrown out of court anyway.

DC: Are you into politics?

BR: No. I don’t care.

DC: So you have nothing to say about the whole Clinton-Lewinsky thing?

BR: Oh, I can say a little something about that. I think the only place where Clinton went wrong was in being married. I just think he’s a man of the times. Fuck it. If I put myself in his shoes, I would have lied like a motherfucker too. And there’s the whole “If she only swallowed, none of this would have happened” jokes. But I shouldn’t get into that, I guess.

DC: Are you religious?

BR: I’m a firm believer in God. I wouldn’t be where I’m at if it wasn’t for God.

DC: You never question that?

BR: Okay, here’s a great Bible verse. Jesus is sitting and eating with politicians and sinners, you know, one of them asks one of his disciples, “Why does Jesus sit there and eat with sinners and such?” And Jesus turns and says, “He who is not sick has no need for the physician, and vice versa.” I think when we’re all at our rock bottom, there’s nothing else but God. But I think all Christians have questioned Him at one time or another.

DC: Did you ever investigate Buddhism?

BR: I think any religion’s okay, except Satanism. I can’t think of anything in Satanism that could benefit you.

DC: But there’s something flashy about Satanism, don’t you think?

BR: I think it’s more powerful in the short term. That’s the trick that the Devil plays on you. It’s like, cocaine’s great the first couple of times, you know? I think that’s just the Devil. That’s how he works. I’m as firm a believer in the Devil as I am in God. I’m just not a supporter.

DC: So do your musical tastes run to Stryper and that sort of thing?

BR: Fuck, no. I’m into blues and jazz. Wes Montgomery, Buddy Guy, Electric blues and old-school, too. You got your Blind Boy Fuller, Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. And I still like punk, of course. Anyone who ever liked punk will never not like punk. It’s very easy to like. Being punk rock means not caring what people think of you. At one point, I did have green hair when I was 13 or so, but I thought it was more punk rock to be just kind of normal than to go and pierce my dick or nose.

DC: Are you into old-school punk or new-school punk?

BR: I can’t stand new-school punk. It’s so poppy, like Offspring or Green Day or whatever. I’m more into the D.C. bands—Fugazi, the Teen Idols, shit like that. And the L.A. late-’70s scene stuff—Descendents, Black Flag, Germs.

DC: At one point, you wanted to make a film about the life of Darby Crash of the Germs, didn’t you?

BR: Yeah. It’s funny. I didn’t get to do that. Some other guy’s doing it, I guess. It would have been cool to play a totally reckless punk. I think I could do that pretty well, but fuck it. Right now, I’m wanting to write and direct a film about a boy in a mental institution. He doesn’t speak, and the film’s about his theory that dogs are superior to humans and how there’s really no need for conversation in a perfect world, because everything would be about unconditional love. You wouldn’t have a need for verbal communication. I haven’t written it yet, but I have the thought.

DC: Do you write?

BR: I write poetry and stuff but not scripts. I just have to sit my ass down and do it. It seems a bit overwhelming, like writing a book of haiku or something. It’s a weird form.

DC: Do you have favorite actors?

BR: Steve Buscemi, definitely. I love him, because he just does his thing. Jack Nicholson, Chris Walken. Those cats are cool. I’d love to work with them. But, hell, I’d even work with Ann-Margret, you know? Who’s to say she’s not a genius? You never know.

DC: Do you ever approach actors or directors you like and ask to work with them?

BR: Just the normal shit. I mean, I don’t go, “Hey, I want to work with Stanley Kubrick. I’m going to chase his crazy ass down.” I don’t send fan letters. I don’t make picture collages and shit, like little strips from a magazine. “I’m Brad. I want to work with you.” No.

DC: I guess I’ll end this by clearing up a really common rumor about you. Did Joel Schumacher adopt you when you were making The Client with him?

BR: Fuck. That’s not true whatsoever. When I was 11, I made a joke that he was going to adopt me, or some shit, but that’s all. I think I liked the idea back then, ’cause my life was kind of hard or something. I live with my grandparents, pretty much always have.

DC: A lot of people think the rumor’s true.

BR: What a bunch of dipshits. These rumors, man. I’m like the [rumor] magnet; I don’t know fucking why. Supposedly, I’m doing some movie with Natalie Portman and Liv Tyler called The Little Black Box. I’ve never heard of that in my life. I think Milos Forman is directing it. It would be fucking cool as hell, but it isn’t real.

DC: I heard you were in the Star Wars prequel, too.

BR: Oh, yeah. Go. I’m all over the place. That’s cool. Wait a second. Ouch.

DC: What’s wrong?

BR: Shit, I’m getting a stress cold sore. [pulls out his lower lip] Look at this.

DC: Charming.

BR: Exactly. I’d better go do whatever with this.

DC: Well, thanks.

BR: Yeah. Have a good day, sir.

Exclaim! / Story by Bruce LaBruce / 2000

YOUNG HOLLYWOOD AND BRAD

It's all about paedophilia these days, we all know that. From JonBenet to Pokémon to little Aaron Carter (Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's sizzling hot younger brother), youth culture has never been at such a premium. So when I was presented with the opportunity recently to hang out with not one but three movie stars under the age of 20, I really couldn't find the strength to say no, despite my notorious aversion to celebrities in general. My friend Esthero had already introduced me to the dazzling Bijou Phillips, of whom I gave you a thumbnail sketch several months ago, and now to be added to the mix were the lovely Dominique Swain, star at of Adrian Lyne's updating of Lolita , and cute as a button Brad Renfro, so mesmerisingly convincing in the vastly underrated Apt Pupil . Interestingly, both movies are about nubile 14 year olds who may or may not know just how adeptly they can control middle-aged men by ingenuously utilising their own considerable sexual charms. Appropriately, all three starlets are in town to appear in the movie Tart . Who am I, a homosexual and filmmaker in a perpetual state of arrested development, to say no?

I get the call from local music industry figures Mutt and Jeff - er, Mark and Jeff - to hook up with them and the famous kids in question at the Cibo Matto show at Lee's Palace in Toronto. As my Soviet dissident poet-cum-hustler friend had been playing the new Cibo Matto CD practically non-stop the last time I was in New York, I couldn't wait to see them live. Jumping the guest list, I enter Lee's to find a shockingly small yet enthusiastic crowd gathered around the stage. I grab a beer from handsome Starvin' Hungry behind the bar - who incidentally looks ravishing in the naked portfolio I took of him for Honcho - and head for the front. I am soon joined by the trouble twins, Mark and Jeff, and our hot little stars minus Dominique, who will materialise later. After a rousing good show, Bijou, who is friends with the band - she is in fact the most connected young lady I have ever met, and at this rate could replace Kevin Bacon in the Six Degrees of Separation game - leads us to the inevitable tour bus, where we have some milk and cookies. That's right, milk and cookies. What did you expect, Special K?

It's eerie yet exotic to be in the same bus with the respective offspring of Papa John Phillips and Papa John Lennon (Sean is, of course, a member of Cibo Matto, and apparently dates either Hatori or Honda, I can't remember which). Darling Bijou sings me an entire song right there and then. Timo, their percussionist, is trying to pick up Leyla again. He's so nice, and cute in his Playgirl T-shirt. I met him before, at the Up and Down Club. (No, that's not a euphemism for sex, but it should be! - as in, when referring to someone you've just had sex with, "I just ran into her at the Up and Down Club.") Also in attendance: several members of the Toronto sensations Robin Black and the Intergalactic All-Stars. Someday you'll clamour for their glamour.

We Sebastian Cabot over to the Bovine Sex Club, where various illustrious people have congregated, including sensational Sasha the stripper scribe and our mutual publisher Sam Gutter, his pal Mary-Anne who is an editor at Bomb magazine, and her boyfriend Luis Guzman, the ubiquitous actor whom I had just scene in a double bill of The Bone Collector (which would surely make a better porno movie) and The Limey (big Lesley Ann Warren fan). Someone who shall remain nameless has already virtually forced an E down my throat, so you'll have to excuse me if from now on I have the memory of Sporadicus.

I think I'd just knocked over a couple of beers and stepped on a few toes and whatnot when all of a sudden in a flash of pink and blond Bijou grabs my arm and floats me out of the club and into a cab. For the next 15 minutes or so, on the way to her hotel, I sit transfixed as she speaks into her flashing pink cell phone. She reads a passionate, epic love poem into the futuristic little instrument, then modestly dismisses it as piffle. She stretches out her long legs and nestles cat-like into the seat as if she's in a perpetual state of limousine. I gaze in wonder at a girl who has the world at her little feet. Her sloe eyes refract the street lights like white diamonds. I think I'm in love. If only I were 20 years younger, and not a ******.

Somehow everyone who is supposed to arrive at her hotel room does. Dominique enters in a faux fur affair, her red hair in pigtails, her face aglow with youth and beauty, pure and simple. Bijou and another young actress and I sit on the bed and watch the end of What's Love Got To Do With It? Snuggling ensues.

It's time to move on, but Bijou - who, oh yes, can be a terror, make no mistake - deigns not to participate. Who knows what psychodramas play behind the scenes of every waking moment of her existence? Mark and Robin ****in' Black and Fro (that's Brad) and Dominique and I end up at a party somewhere uptown where we have some ice cream and cake. Well, it is a birthday party after all. Now I'm really flying, so naturally we have to go glow-in-the dark bowling. Yet another cab takes us far out into the suburbs where we rendezvous with other members of the birthday party (alas, sans Nick Cave) and throw multi-coloured balls at distant pins that seem to be wobbling (too much birthday cake?).

Before you can say "it seemed like a good idea at the time" we're back in the cab and hurtling toward the afore-not-mentioned-which hotel. You see, the jacuzzi beckons. It's six a.m. and still dark, but we are hoping it's already open. While the others change, I accompany Fro to his room as he is only 17 and needs constant chaperoning. By design, we instead enter the room adjacent to his, where his grandmother and guardian Joanne smokes nervously and awaits his homecoming. When he confesses that he's had too much birthday cake, she reams him out but good for squandering his allowance and staying up until all hours of the night. She speaks, as does her grandson, in a deep Tennessee drawl, is wrapped in a cotton night-gown, smokes a Cool in a cigarette holder, is pissed off. He praises her as the most precious woman in the world, sings, in fact, her praises until she softens a little, but not much. They pose for my camera, family photos.

Here and there I hear snips of the young stars' stories. Brad was discovered at the tender age of ten to appear in Joel Schumaker's The Client , shot in and around Brad's hometown of Knoxville. His parents have a shady past, something about the illicit selling of milk and cookies and birthday cake and ice cream. There's a bizarre story about one of his relatives putting out a contract on the life of his little sister and his grandmother, of both being shot and both surviving. There's the fact that he has to go back to Tennessee to face charges of grand theft auto and possession of cocaine and marijuana, which I only mention because it's already all over the internet. He's such a sweet boy though. He adopts me as his Aunt Bruce ("you must admit you're pretty effeminate, and you should be proud of it," he learns me), probably because he's used to being adopted by gay director types (Joel Schumaker, whom he's stayed with; Bryan Singer). He promises his grandmother he won't leave the hotel again tonight.

We're on the way to the jacuzzi. Four of us have made it this far; Robin ****in' Black has gone missing. Fro brings his guitar and Dominique brings the cigarettes, Mark and I bring our tattoos but the stolen Jägermeister has gone missing. We hit the jacuzzi in our underwear as several middle-aged men ride stationary bikes and run on tread mills on the other side of the room. The lights of the city lay before us in the darkened morning. Dominique surfaces and smiles.

Back to Dominique's room for some mini-bar candy. We decide to head to my apartment because we can't get beer from room service until 11 a.m. and it's only seven-ish. Brad puts on his pyjamas and his parka and his black oxford shoes. He looks like an eight-year-old kid who's just come back from the drive-in. He plays and sings his guitar, bluegrass, for me and Mark and Dominique and the cabby in the umpteenth cab of the night. He's in love with Dominique; she fends off his charming barrage of sweet-talk like a seasoned pro.

At my apartment the morning sun pours in through the windows. We head for the kitchen and the beers. Brad freaks out at the photo montage of River Phoenix that hangs over my kitchen sink, which includes the photo published in the National Enquirer of River in his casket. You see, people often compare Fro to the late, great Phoenix. Fro tells me I'm morbid, then shakes it off. As we drink our cold Coronas, Dominique dances dreamily to Iggy and the Stooges in the new light of day. She is going to sail through all the bull**** of life and Hollywood in her boat of grace and beauty. She's angelic. We like the way she moves.

(taken from U.S WEEKLY 2001 August)

TROUBLE IN MIND

HE MAY BE TALENTED AND CHARISMATIC, BUT BRAD RENFRO IS ALSO BRAZEN AND

ADMITTEDLY SELF DESTRUCTIVE. WILL HE BECOME A STAR OR JUST ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD

CASUALTY?

BY: MICHEAL KAPLAN

At the poolside cafe of West Hollywood hotel, reputed bad boy Brad Renfro arrives promptly at the agreed-upon time of 12:30p.m.,looking relatively tame and carrying a 16-ounce bottle of orange juice. During dinner the night before at the trendy Eurochow, he turned down an offer of a cocktail in favor of ice water and ordered a salad tht looked as appetizing as a platter of wet cardboard.

Considering Renfro's past--just 19, he's already been busted for pot and cocaine possession, underage drinking and attempting to steal a yacht(he would have sailed off with it had he and his friend not neglected to untie the mooring lines that connected it to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, dock)--the straight-and-narrow demeanor is a bit of a surprise.

But Renfro--now appearing in the darkly comic "Ghost World" and the teen sex-and-murder opus "Bully"--says he's trying to improve his habits along with his image. "I need to stop taking s--- for granted, to stop acting like a f---ing buffoon and to get serious",he says."Maybe I had been partying a little too much. But I've nipped that in the bud." His redemption, he claims, will come from the distance he puts between himself and Los Angeles, where he is currently promoting his movies. "If I moved out here to L.A., I would be nuts," says Renfro, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.

His grandmother raised him there after his parents divorced when he was 5. "I'd be the stereotypical Hollywood kid, hitting all the parties and s---."

But that's nearly what did happen. After director Joel Schumacher discovered him at age 12 (a talent scout singled him out for his performance in a school play) and cast him in 1994's "The Client", opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones, Renfro's carrer soared--he was praised for subsequent performances in "Apt Pupil", "The Cure", and "Sleepers". But with success came trouble. "I started doing drugs",Renfro says. "I've done everything in the book. I've eaten an ounce of mushrooms in a 24-hour period. I've done heroin. I like heroin. And I still have a few cocktails." Holding his bottle of orange juice up to the sunlight, he adds, "As a matter of fact, I'm drinking a little vodka right now."

Renfro admits that his 1998 bust for drug possession in Knoxville might have aborted his fledgling career. "It was my first offense", he says, explaining why he was able to plea-bargain his sentence down to probation.

"They could have had me doing six months up in county. Jail sucks for anyone, but especially for a pretty boy like me".

Yet the arrest carried other, more personal consequences. Knoxville had once been proud of its hometown boy--a plaque had gone up in his honor at the local multiplex. But after the drug bust, the plaque was unceremoniously removed. "It hurt", Renfro says. "People treat me like the bastard stepchild of Knoxville. I'd like to make myself feel better and say that they're jealous, but that's really not the case. Maybe they're ashamed of me becauseof my f---ing antics".

Renfro undoes the top few buttons of his shirt to reveal a small cross tattooed on his chest. "My mother used to give me crucifixes, and I lost them; I won't lose this one," he says, adding that he has deep-seated Christian beliefs and travels with his own monogrammed Bible. "I try to read it every night before I go to bed. Basically it's about honesty."

Suddenly, Renfro spots Ozzy Osbourne by the pool. As the weathered rock star passes the table, the actor chugs a shot of whiskey and jumps in Osbourne's path. "Ozzy",he says, "I am just a teenage wastrel actor who's had too much to drink. But I must throw myself at your feet."

Osbourne looks alarmed and cranes his neck, perhaps searching for hotel security. He akwardly sidesteps Renfro, then says, "I've been there". As Osbourne escapes, Renfro announces that he has to leave too. "My life hasn't been a cakewalk," he says. "But it all comes down to what you do for

yourself. You f--- yourself up, son."

Renfro gets into his waiting car, disappearing behind tinted glass. As the driver kicks the ignition, the rear window lowers a crack. "I don't mean to make you feel weird," he says. "I'm just afraid you will write bad about me. You're the last interview. I ain't doing no more publicity. Bad stuff."

(taken from INTERVIEW MAGAZINE, September 2001)

HE'LL NEVER HAVE TO RAM A YACHT INTO THE DOCK FOR ATTENTION AGAIN

Nineteen-years-old Brad Renfro made his acting debut opposite Susan Surandon in Joel Schumacher's 1994 film The Client, at the tender age of 10. With Sleepers (1996) and Apt Pupil (1998), he seemed to be making the transition to bona fide stardom when, in August 2000, he attempted to steal a yacht (although, to much media mirth, he forgot to untie it from the dock). It resulted in his second arrest and Renfro retreated to his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he lives with his grandmother, to clear his head.

This summer Renfro made a very big comeback in Larry Clark's deeply distrubing and equaily moving Bully, playing a youth so troubled he makes the actor's own adolescent tomfoolery seem G-rated in comparison.Based on a true story, Bully tells the tale of Marty Puccio, and insecure Florida teen who's tormented by his best friend until his girlfriend (Rachel Miner), like a white trash Lady Macbeth, convinces Marty to murder him. Renfro was also seen this summer playing Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson's chauffer-slash-object of desire in the delightful Ghost World, director Terry Zwigoff's dark-tinted coming - of- age story. And later this fall comes a suporting role alongside Stephen Dorff and Norman Reedus in the ensemble '50's gangster film Deuces Wild.

EMMA FOREST: Your first line of dialogue in this past summer's Bully is "I want you to suck my big dick." How do you subsume the fear of what your family is going to think?

BRAD RENFRO: My family is actually very cool like that. As a matter of fact, My grandmother, if she were to watch me deliver that very line, would probably laugh her ass off.

EF: Does it seem a dichotomy to you that with the recent Bully and Ghost World and, in fact all the way back to Apt Pupil and Sleepers, get you're doing such gritty work and yet you're still living with your grandma in Knoxville?

BR: I kind of dig it, actually.

EF: You've lived with her for a while, haven't you?

BR: Yeah, since I was six. Actually, I'm about to move out, into a cabin up in the mountains in the country right next to Knoxville.

EF: Sounds lovely. What's harder as an actor, very graphic sex or very graphic violence? because you've done both.

BR: As an actor I'd say very graphic violence.But as a viewer, very graphic sex. As a matter of fact the first time I saw Bully, My one problem was that there was too much graphic sex.

EF: Some people have said that Bully's cast was exploited. Was there ever a point in making the film that you felt uncomfortable?

BR: No, not really. It's kind of hard to exploit or imbarrass Old Brad Renfro. I've done a good job of that my damn self.

EF:Which we'll come to. (both laugh) Was there anything you did to make Rachel Miner feel more comfortable, or that she did to make you feel mor comfortable, during those graphic sex scenes?

BR: Rachel and I were extremely good friends (when we started filming), so it made it much easier. I would have had a lot more quarrels with the story, except for the fact that this shit really happened. So it wasn't as if I could say "well you know Larry. I don't know if this character would really do this."

EF: Is that something that you usually tend to do, quarrel with a director?

BR: Oh, yeah, I totally like to get in the grit.Because there've been so many movies were I haven't done that, and when I see that, I just want to puke. With movies like Tom and Huck (1995)-my dumb ass thought I was making an American classic. And it wasn't that.

EF: Do you ever feel protective of the child version of you, the you that was a child actor?

BR: Oh, most definitely. I started smoking cigarettes when I was 11 years old. If I could, I would go back and smack the shit out of myself.

EF: And you were only 10 when you made The Client. Did you have sexual thought about Susan Sarandon?

BR: (laughs) Yeah, of course I did I mean her fire! You're damn straight! Yeah, and I still do, I mean, come on honey, she's Susan Sarandon, She's hottie! Oh God, Susan's gonna murder me know. (laughs)

EF:You want to hear something crazy? The morning after the presidental election I was out in the street (in New York) and I saw Susan Sarandon coming towards me on scooter. I just felt, "Susan will know what to do". So I asked her." What are we gonna to do?" She was so cool about being stopped on the street, and she said "we go through the father and we'll make it through the son. I'll be OK-I promise you."

BR: That woman is just my favorite. She is my favorite woman alive.

EF: You said in the production notes from Bully that actors trade their sanity for pleasure. So, to get to the topic you've probably been waiting for, were you arrests a manifestation of that?

BR: No, my arrest were, I think, just God trying to tell me "chill-before jail isn't an option."

EF: Have you become more religious since all that happened?

BR: Most definitely.

EF: And do you think God is OK with your sex scene in Bully?

BR: Oh, definitely. Other wise He wouldn't have precented me with the opportunity. Hey, hold on a second -Gotta get Tennesssee with it.

EF: What?

BR: I said " I has to get Tennessee with it" - take my shirt off. It's too hot. It's killing me. OK. So, no, My God's not gonna be to down on my work, I don't think.

EF: You've said he wouldn't have precented you with the opportunity, but could say that about anyhing. Isn't that dangerous?

BR: Well, if you try to use it to your best adventage, yes that could be dangerous, I suppose.But everybody - religious, atheist, satanist- knows right from wrong.

EF: Ghost World is based on a comic book. I wonder, have you ever felt like a comic book character, like the next panel is already mapped out for you, whether you like it or not?

BR: No. I really believe I'm in controll of my own destiny.

EF: In Deuces Wild you have a love scene with Fairuza Balk. She would made a lot of heterosexual girls I know experiment, which guy will make you experiment?

BR: Steve McQueen! (laughs)

EF: All the best once are dead. "what's your favorite Steve McQueen's movie?

BR: I have got many of them. I am actually about watch the Cincinnati Kid (1985).

EF: I love that film! Tuesday Welt is one of my favorite actress

BR: Oh,she's beautiful.

EF: You seem to have an affinity for older women.

BR: Definitely.

EF: Have you ever date an older woman?

BR: Mmm-hmm

EF: Is it something you hope to do again?

BR: I don't know. They certainly enjoy it, though.

EF: That sounds cocky.

BR: I'm not a bad person.

EF: I didn't say you were a bad person.

BR: Actually I'm not arrogant

EF: Are you insecure ?

BR: Highly.

EF: In a parallel universe, where the yacht wasn't tied to the dock, where did you go?

BR: Nowhere. I just sat there and rammed it into the dock, just like I did. If I'd wanted to go somewhere I would've untied it.

EF: Really, it wasn't mistake?

BR: No, no. I am fucking retarded, but I'm not fucking stupid. I just wanted to sit there and cause a ruckus and ram it into the dock.

EF: You wanted some attention.

BR: Right

EF: But not as much attention as you got.

BR: No shit.

(From STAR Magazine)

ROCKIN’ RENFRO

I hear your grandma hates when you play guitar to loudly in your-bedroom-is this true?

I am usually playing an acoustic guitar, so that usually isn’t the case! Ha…ha…ha… when I plug in, she pounds on the door sometimes. So she definitely prefers "Brad Unplugged". Ha…ha…ha… she actually likes some of my songs, seriously.

What do you like best about being an actor and what do you like the least?

I love acting, I love getting to play cool characters, I love studying for the part, reading about that character if it’s a real live person or doing research if it’s a literary figure like Huck. The thing I hate about doing film is, unwanted press and people snooping around my door. I live in the middle of nowhere, but I get a lot of phone calls I don’t want and I finally had to get an unlisted number. I hate having to be secretive, but you have to do so to protect your privacy. I don’t want a Hollywood life, I just want to be good old Brad.

Do you have a mischievous side to you- like Huck Finn had?

Yes, I have been known to get my own brand of trouble. Ha…ha…ha… but nothing too bad, really. Huck wasn’t a real trouble-maker- he just got in too deep over his head all the time. But he really had a good heart.

What is the worst thing you ever did?

Nothing that horrible, I am sure I have thrown some temper tantrums in my day, plus when I was a little kid, I used to lie a lot. Ha…ha…ha…

Tell us about your movie, ‘Telling Lies In America’.

I think it’s a good film. It’s set in 1961 and I play a 17-year-old who makes friends with a corrupt rock DJ, played by Kevin Bacon. I loved getting to wear clothes from that period and greasing my hair back- I am a "greaser" at heart. Ha…ha…ha

What do you think was the greatest period in rock ‘n’ roll?

I guess that would be a toss-up; it would be between 1957, when Elwis first became a phenomenon and early in 1964 when the Beatles first came to America. I would love to be in a movie about either.

What music are you listening to these days?

I listen to my old Led Zeppelin CDs still and still think Jimmy Page is the ultimate guitar god. But I also listen to Faith No More, Blind Melon, old Nirvana Cds ( I love the Muddy Banks Of the Wishkah live CD!), Offspring and other harder alternative stuff. I can’t resist a great guitar riff- I love to rock out ! I often try to learn to play a lot of the stuff I hear on the alternative station where I live I have a good ear for music, but I wish I could pick things up more readily.

Do you and JTT keep in touch?

Jonathan is a great guy; really sincere and really bright. He is really helpful- unlike some other young actors, he doesn’t only think about his performance on the set. It is amazing how uncompetitive he is. We have only talked a few times since Tom & Huck was done and we always make plants but then one or the other has a professional commitment and has to go back out. I’d love to go fishing with him sometime – I can tell he knows his stuff in the department!

What is your best memory on a movie set?

This sound stupid but falling into pile of mud on Tom & Huck set. I keep trying to get up like six or seven times and kept sliding. I hurt my butt like nobody’s business and it provided everyone on the set with a good laugh – at my expense.

What would you do if suddenly didn’t have an acting career tomorrow?

I would probably be working at McDonald’s and overcooking the burgers and then getting fired. Ha…ha…ha. No seriously, I think I would try to do something with my musical ability. I would love to at least write songs for other people. And I’d go to college and study drama or English literature.

Do you prefer to go out with actresses or "normal" girls?

I date all different types of people and I am certainly not attracted to only actresses. I look more for personality than looks – honest. I need someone with a good sense of humor, who’s very open-minded and doesn’t just like to do the usual things on dates. Sure, I like going to the movies but I think a hiking date or walk along the beach is more romantic.

What do you look for physically, though?

Honestly, like I said, I like all different kind of girls – I have a bit of a preference for long hair and big smile that makes me heart melt, though.

What is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you on a date?

Once I looked down and noticed my pants were ripped – I don’t mean just tipped, I mean giant gaping 10-inch hole! Guess I didn’t feel it because I had thick underwear on and there was no breeze. So I quickly zipped up my jacket and ran into a 7-11 for a sewing kit! I went into a men’s room and sewed up my jeans the best I could- but then the hole started riping again. I said I needed to go home and ended the date early. I hope the girl does not think I was bored with her that day!

Do you have any sort of message for your fans?

(taken from Movieline Magazine 2001)

"Brad Influence" (Interview By: Dennis Hensley)

Brad Renfro is only 19, but he has already garnered one accolade that his famous costars, which include Ian Mckellan(Apt Pupil), Robert DeNiro(Sleepers)and Susan Sarandon(The Client), will probably never receive. He's had a page on a Web site dedicated solely to the celebration of his naked torso.

"Is that what I've become, a piece of meat?" Renfro wonders when I tell him I spent a good five minutes earlier today perusing the Brad Renfro Shirtless Gallery on an Internet fan site. The Knoxville,Tennessee native takes a swig of Coke in the lobby of L.A.'s trendy W Los Angeles hotel and laughs.

"I guess it's quite flattering, but you'll see-I'm not quite the cheeseball you think".

Few in Hollywood think that Brad Renfro is a cheeseball. He's generally considered a talented young actor whose career seems to be picking up (he's appearing in three films this year-Bully, Deuces Wild, and Ghost World) depite personal problems that followed on the box-office disappointment of 1998's Apt Pupil. Renfro has been arrested twice, after all-in 1998 for driving under the influence of marijuana (cocaine was also found), and last year, when he and a friend tried to steal a 45-foot yacht from a Florida harbor.

"I do have a bad reputation",Renfro admits, in a Tennessee drawl,"but I think most of the time when folks meet me, they don't have too many bad things to say about me".

"Regarding the yacht thing" I say as gingerly as possible,"Is it true that you forgot to untie the boat from the dock before attempting to take off?"

"Yeah", says Renfro, with a nervous laugh. "Aw, come on! Put two and two together. It was a joke that went very sour. I'm not that ignorant".

"How was your mug shot?"

"I was quite pleased with it," he says with a smile. "I was beefier then. I beefed up for Bully so I could kick ass".

In Bully, Renfro plays a real-life Florida teen named Marty Puccio,who, along with a group of friends(played by Bijou Phillips and Rachel Miner, among others),brutally murdered Bobby Kent(Nick Stahl), the young man who'd

been tormenting them for years.

"This movie is fucked up" says Renfro of the violence-drenched drama, the latest from Kids director Larry Clark. "But I'm extremely proud of it".

After Bully, Renfro will hit screens with Stephen Dorff and Fairuza Bulk in Deuces Wild, a drama about rival street gangs set in 1950's Brooklyn from director Scott Kalvert(The Basketball Diaries). Moviegoers will also see Renfro in the adaptation of the comic book Ghost World from director Terry Zwigoff(Crumb). He plays Josh, the charmer who comes between two friends(Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson)who are bonded by bitterness.

"I just saw Deuces Wild,"I tell Renfro,"and I swear, it must have the highest budget for bruise makeup in the history of Hollywood."

"If you were in that movie, you got the shit beat out of you at least once, whether you were a guy or a girl", says Renfro, whose make-out scene with Balk in a swimming pool is sure to delight the fans of his shirtless Web site.

"If you like ass-whupping and you like leather, this is your film."

"I loved how they shot Dorff in slow motion like he was the ultimate bad-ass," I remark. "Isn't he, like, 5'5''?"

"No ass-whupping respect for Dorff,huh?" Renfro says with a laugh. "Well, we love him. He's good folk."

As that turn of phrase suggests, no matter how many 5-star hotels he crashes in, Renfro will always be a Tennessee boy at heart. When he's not shooting, he can be found in Knoxville, playing blues guitar in his modest two-bedroom house or floating down the Little Pigeon River on a raft he bought at Wal-Mart. As for L.A., he loves the occasional small dose.

"Ya gotta get a little glitter up in ya for about a week,"says Renfro. "Then you gotta fuckin' run".

Hollywood came knocking on Renfro's Tennessee door when, at age 10, he so impressed D.A.R.E officers he'd worked with on a school anti drug production that they referred him to famed casting director Mali Finn. At the time, Finn was combing the country for a boy to play opposite Susan Sarandon in Joel Schumacher's thriller The Client.

"I auditioned at the Radisson in Knoxville," recalls Renfro, who had little priop acting experience,"and I just did what I always do. I just try to believe what I'm doing."

After The Client hit big, the 12-year-old Renfro, who'd been raised by his grandmother since his parents divorced when he was five, began to work steadily in big-studio films such as Tom and Huck and the ensemble Sleepers, in which he played the younger version of Brad Pitt's character.

"What's the most trouble you ever got into in school before you dropped out?" I ask.

Renfro cracks a sly grin and replies, "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I fired up a marijuana cigarette in the school parking lot in front of the head administrator and got expelled." Finishing off his Coke and balancing the can on a nearby ashtray, he adds,

"I don't smoke anymore. it's funny, man. Most kids my age are just getting into the party scene and I'm over that shit. I don't go out and get arrested anymore. The most extravagant thing I do these days is play golf. I'm like an old man."

"Do you think your past problems cost you parts?" I ask.

"I'm sure they have," he replies. "But I've never had any kind of flak while filming a movie. I haven't missed a day of work or been late in my life."

Renfro has seen other actors cause set difficulties, though: "The wackiest thing was this one actor got bitten by his old lady and caught gangrene and it shut down production for two weeks."

"If I guess who it was, will you tell me I'm right?" I ask, digging out his list of credits. "Kevin Bacon from Telling Lies in America? Dustin Hoffman from Sleepers? Oh, I know. Jonathan Taylor Thomas from Tom and Huck!"

Just as I think Renfro is this close to giving up the goods, a sweet-looking young woman with strawberry blonde pigtails approaches. Renfro introduces her as Jenny, his girlfriend of one month. She's an architecture student at the University of Tennesee he met through a mutual friend. I ask Brad if Jenny knew he was famous when they spoke.

"I don't think so," says Brad, taking her hand. "Yes I did," corrects Jenny.

"But if wasn't like, 'Hey, I remember you from Tom and Huck.'"

As I walk the couple to the elevator, a buxom blonde recognizes Brad and gives him a wave. He smiles shyly.

"You seem to have friendly fans," I note.

"For the most part," says Renfro. "One time I was recognized on an airplane and the guy said, 'Aren't you that fucker that tried to steal that yacht?'"