"I think one of the principal reasons for whatever
success I've had as an actor is the fact that I try to humanize
the parts I play," says Terence Hill. "I try to
make the character one with which the audience can identify
and sympathize."
Terence Hill is playing Marco, a gypsy cat burglar who joins
the French Foreign Legion in 1918 to escape the police, in
the Dick Richards film 'March
or Die', a Columbia Pictures release.
Produced and directed by Richards and co-produced by Jerry
Bruckheimer, the multi-million-dollar production combines
a romantic love story with all the adventure and action
of the warfare between the Legion and the Arabs of Morocco,
where most of the film was shot. Starred with Terence Hill
in the epic drama are Gene Hackman, Max von Sydow and Catherine
Deneuve.
 Terence
Hill is a superb athlete and gymnast who won championships
in swimming in his younger days. But he is also a cerebral
type who studied classic literature at the University of Rome.
"I've always felt that reading the classics can be helpful
to an actor," he says. "There's a lot in them to
be learned about characterization, for example. Thomas Mann
is probably my favorite," adds Hill, who is of German-Italian
descent and lived in Dresden for four years as a child. He
also spent three years in Germany later, playing in adventure
films.
"I think that it was then that I began to try to make
the characters I played more human and down-to-earth, sort
of a kid's image of what a western star should be," he
says. "Not the larger-than-life heroes you so often see.
In fact, I played an almost anti-hero, or, at least, an anti-myth
type."
 "For
instance, in the first 'Trinity'
picture, I'm seen eating a can of beans. The classic western
hero never seems to get hungry, or if he does, he doesn't
eat beans. When people see me on the street, they see me as
a friend - one of them, so to speak."
Hill handled his role of Marco in 'March
or Die' in much the same way. "He's obviously
a brave man, involved in escapades and adventures which
require courage," he points out. "But he's also
a compassionate man who can fall in love with a beautiful
girl, suffer punishment for helping a friend and risk his
life for a cause he really has no involvement with. In
addition, he has a wry sense of humor that produces natural
and not forced laughter in an audience. In short, he's
human." |
