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Bernie
Mac
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Discusses Recent
Health Problems, Fascination With Guns and Prankster George
Clooney
“He’s
a practical joker,” says Bernie Mac about fellow Ocean’s
Twelve co-star George Clooney. “You’ve got to watch
yourself at all times. You open a door, you better make sure a
bucket of water don’t fall on you. George’ll put gum in
your drink after he’s chewed on it. You better watch when
you sit down, make sure the chair don’t fold up on you and
there ain’t no tacks on it. He’s a mofo. George is
constantly needling you.”
Bernie
Mac’s health may be down, but he’s not out. His recent
battle with pneumonia put him in the hospital and flat on his
back for weeks. Playboy Contributing Editor David Rensin
caught up with Mac, and his oxygen tank, to discuss his
sickness, hanging with his Ocean’s Twelve co-stars, golf and
his gun collection.
Following
are select quotes from Bernie Mac’s December Playboy
Interview (on newsstands Friday, November 12):
On his
recent bout of pneumonia: “I’d never been sick in my life
before. Forty-six years of playing sports, humbugging,
football, baseball, basketball, never had nothing broken.
Never was in the hospital. I was hospitalized about 2:30 last
Thursday morning, and after some chest X-rays at three they
told me I got pneumonia. Today I went to the doctor, and
everything is going real good. I’ve been walking with this
oxygen stuff sometimes. Before, I couldn’t even walk across
this living room.”
On his
Ocean’s Twelve co-stars: “We played poker, had cigars, had
dinners all the time, parties. It was just a good time. Jerry
Weintraub, the producer, might be a pain in the ass, but he
really knows how to treat his actors. Top-shelf. We were the
Rat Pack.”
On fame:
“I’m not a star, and I don’t want to be a star. Stars
fall. I’m an entertainer, a performer. I’m an ordinary guy
with an extraordinary job. I’m a comedian, a clown, and
that’s fine with me. I’m the guy who takes people away
from their problems for an hour and a half or two.”
On his
gun collection: “I have Glocks, .45s, Berettas, over-unders,
Remingtons. I like the marksmanship and the discipline that it
takes to be a gun owner. I like the machinery, breaking it
down. Being able to take it out, clean it and put the spring
back in is even more fascinating than having the gun.”
On black
romance in film: “Every time you see a black romance it’s
over-the-top. There always has to be extreme hostility between
the sexes. He has to cheat. She has to show him how
independently strong she is, not just as a woman but as a
black woman.”
On
maturing: “Around when my grandfather died, I was living in
a bad place, not in terms of harming others but of harming
myself. I was irresponsible. I ran the streets and my
priorities were all messed up. I’d lost several apartments,
furniture. I had to move in with people constantly. I
couldn’t hold a job, and I was the talk of the family. I
couldn’t understand why I was always hurting people who
loved me. I was tired of being a no-good son of a bitch who
called himself a man but was just a grown boy. Living check to
check, blaming people and mad at other people’s fortunes.”
On
today’s TV producers: “Look at Father Knows Best, Leave It
to Beaver, Dick Van Dyke. The fathers were the breadwinners,
the strong individuals. When Wally and the Beaver had a
problem, Ward would go upstairs and give them everyday
lessons. Now it’s the quick joke. You’ve got guys in
charge of shows who probably went to school for chemistry, and
now they’re executive producers.”
On his
fears: “Not being able to give my best. I get anxious about
taking new material to the people. When I don’t give my best
it taunts me. It tears me apart. It’s almost like cheating
on a test: You passed, and everybody thinks you’re great,
but you know you don’t know shit. Whatever success I’ve
had, I always like to top it.”
On golf:
“Golf will change your life. I love the camaraderie. I love
playing all these beautiful courses. I love the aftermath-the
beers, the cigars, the good food. I like meeting good people.
I don’t deal with toxic waste. When I get a chance to play
golf or go on a boat with good people, take the boat out and
put some lobsters on the grill, get the ice-cold beer and the
cigars-that’s heaven here on earth.”
Kanye
West raps it up with Playboy in the December issue as well,
while hip hop’s first son, Nas, joins his dad, legendary
jazz and blues musician Olu Dara to discuss music and family
business.
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