Michael Madsen: ‘Harvey Weinstein never liked me – he didn’t want me in any of Tarantino’s movies’
A few years ago, Michael Madsen thought he was finished. “I went through some bad s***,” he recalls, his voice so gravelly that it’s as if he’s swallowed the contents of an ashtray. Some of it was out of his control, like the Malibu fires that burned his house to the ground in 2018. Some, in hindsight, he should have been more careful about. “I had a bad motorcycle accident and had to get my back operated on. I got a couple of DUIs [drink-driving penalties]. I had terrible, terrible times. Fame is not what it’s cracked up to be. I’m not complaining, because I’ve had a great life. But it can wreak havoc on you if you’re not protected. Luckily, I’m in a better place now. I’m not anxious any more. I’m even doing interviews again. I mean, when’s the last time anybody wanted to talk to Michael Madsen?” If you’d exclusively watched Quentin Tarantino movies for the last 30 years, it would seem as if Madsen has never gone away. As the ear-slicing Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, and later as...