Matt’s Chance came out on DVD in July, when we were swamped with TCA and Comic-Con coverage. So we’re a little late, but Lee Majors has been so supportive of the film, he was still happy to give an interview about his role. Majors plays a mysterious barber listening to the story of Matt (Edward Furlong) and his revenge against a cheating ex-girlfriend. The film also features cameos from Margot Kidder, Gary Busey and more, so we took the chance to talk to Majors about his latest film and his classic TV series.
CraveOnline: When these filmmakers like Nicholas Gyeney want you in their movie, are you really accessible? Can they go right to your agent?
Lee Majors: You know what, I enjoy doing [them]. The one I just finished was a low-budget film and first time director. The one I did with Nick back in Seattle a while back, it was a low budget film, but I enjoy working with these guys. They’re very energetic. They’re writers, they’re directors, they’re producing their own stuff, raising their own money. It’s really tough on them and having been in the business 50-some years now, I can pick and choose whatever I want to do. I enjoy working with them. They’re all very enthusiastic and they’re doing some really nice stuff. So it’s always fun.
What was it about Nick and Matt’s Chance that made you say yes?
Well, it was an interesting script. I wasn’t sure how it was going to come together because it was a little weird. It was a dark comedy, and had a little fickle nature of human morality in it. It was just an interesting film and honestly, I wasn’t sure how it was going to come together. But once I saw it, it was one I would definitely watch all the way through. It just kept getting better and better, but it holds you. It makes you want to see what the heck happens to this fella. Anyway, it stars Eddie Furlong and he did a marvelous job. It was a very tough film for him to do. We had some very nice characters in it. Bill Sorice who played a role and then of course, one of the co-writers, who wrote it with Nick Gyeney, Edi Zanidache. He did a great job. Maybe you’ll know this, the NFL Seahawk Marshawn Lynch, the running back for Seattle, I got to meet him and he has a supporting role in the film. But, to get to the three cameos that are kind of spotlighted in the film, I play one of them. The other two, I hadn’t seen Margot Kidder in quite a while but she plays a role called Mother Mable and she just did a wonderful job at it. I marveled at what she did. And then of course we had Gary Busey. If you know Gary, he’s out there sometimes and he played a pawn shop owner. He did a marvelous job in his cameo. He was kind of all over the place. And of course, I was one of the other big cameos and had a very interesting character who shows up at the end.
Right, your big scene comes at the end. We won’t give it away but when you filmed your scenes, was the emphasis more on the final scene than the earlier ones?
It’s funny, you don’t really know who’s behind the chair if you know what I mean. Eddie Furlong starts this movie out talking to someone who’s giving him a haircut. Anyway, Nick is a wonderful director, raised there in Seattle and that’s where he shoots out of. Actually, he’s getting ready to do another couple of films lined up there and I’m hopefully in one of them. I can’t wait to work with him again.
The barbershop scene is sort of a wraparound scene that appears throughout the movie. Were you there the whole time?
Luckily, Nick is experienced enough to know to get his core people who he has limited access to, like Gary Busey, Margot and myself, to get in and get their stuff done and then shoot around us for the rest. I think that’s what he did with Gary, Margot and myself. Then he can concentrate on the rest of the characters, but no, I didn’t have to spend the entire movie there. I shot my stuff out in about a week but it was enjoyable. I hadn’t been to Seattle in quite a while so it was nice to be there.
A week is a significant time for a cameo.
Yeah, especially if the director knows what he’s doing and he does. Nick is very good, because all of my scenes take place in one spot. So if you’re on one set, once you get in there, you can shoot all of my scenes in two or three days. It was very nice, it was comfortable and I enjoyed the shoot very much.
Did you by any chance learn how to really cut hair?
Eddie was getting a little nervous with somebody back there clipping around at the back of his head with scissors for however long these scenes took. No, I don’t think I ever took any hair off of him actually, but he was getting a little nervous and I could see the sweat popping on on the front of him.
That this been a fruitful time for you, because you’ve been popping up in a lot of TV shows and movies?
I just love to work. Last season I did a couple of comedies, two shows for Scott Baio who had a series on Nickelodeon called “See Dad Run.” I play his father-in-law. And then of course on “Raising Hope,” I did a couple of shows on that one this season, played the father of the star of that show. I’ve done several films around and looking to do a few more here real quick. Since I just finished the one in Boise, I’m heading out to Italy for a two week vacation with my wife to charge our batteries up and come back and start another film I think.
One of my favorites was “The Night the Reindeer Died” in Scrooged. What did you think when they brought you that script?
Richard Donner directed that and I start the movie off by saving Santa Claus with this huge big old artillery gun. I couldn’t tell you what caliber it was, but I gotta tell you, it was heavy. And it sounded like a cannon but it was a fun cameo to do for that picture. I remember being up in Vancouver, do you remember a picture called Out Cold?
Yes, the snowboarding movie.
Yeah, and the first time I had seen Zach Galifianakis and that was one of his first films. He’s quite a character.
I’d seen him do standup before then.
Funny guy.
Do you have any favorite episodes of “Six Million Dollar Man” or “Fall Guy?”
Favorite episodes with “Six Mil,” probably the ones with Bigfoot, with Andre the Giant who played Bigfoot. Those were fun to shoot. Then of course with “The Fall Guy,” there were a couple of shows I really liked, one with Richard Burton and I did one with Roy Rogers, who was one of my heroes growing up. You wouldn’t remember much about him but all there were was westerns on television. When I started on “The Big Valley,” there must have been 19 westerns on, and of course we only had three networks. So it was very much a western genre then. In fact, my first movie where I got credit was a western with Charlton Heston called Will Penny. That’s probably the best performance he ever gave.
Did you ever think you would have two long-running series where you were the lead?
Actually, I’ve done about seven total. I had one in the ‘60s called “The Big Valley” where I was one of the stars with Barbara Stanwyck. That ran about five years. Then I did a year of “The Virginian” starring in that. I did a lawyer series called “Owen Marshall , Counselor at Law” costarring in that for three years. Then “The Six Million Dollar Man” for five years plus six TV movies we did for the whole decade of the ‘70s. Then the ‘80s was “The Fall Guy.” I was in “Tour of Duty” for quite a while, then I did a series in England, a comedy. Then I did a series in Hawaii called “Raven.” It was on in the United States for two seasons.
They’ve been trying to do a Six Million Dollar Man movie for a while. Had you been involved with any of those?
No, but I keep hearing it because of having such a problem with getting the license and rights to do the film, because the original person, Martin Caidin, who wrote the book Cyborg, which was where The Six Million Dollar Man came from, the family still owns the rights and it’s been a big battle over the years. So the last time I heard, Harvey Weinstein’s group had possession of it. I don’t know if they’ll do anything about it, but then also I’m pretty sure that The Rock, Dwayne Johnson is going to do the Fall Guy movie in the next year or so. I think they’ve already done a contract on it. That I’m looking forward to.
Will you be involved in The Fall Guy movie at all, at least a cameo?
I don’t know. I know Dwayne. Dwayne said he learned to raise his left eyebrow from “The Six Million Dollar Man.” That’s about the only thing we’ve got in common but we’ll see. I’d love to do a part in it, but I don’t have anything to do with it really. We’ll see.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
