Film Review - July 1987

Pillow Talk

Iain McAsh meets Superman's Dangerous Adversary

The Man of Steel has his deadliest rival yet in Cannon's soon-to-be-released, Superman IV. His name is Mark Pillow, but there's nothing soft about this new screen villain as I quickly discovered when I met him.

The film marks his first screen appearance — and he's all out to give our super hero, played for the fourth time by Christopher Reeve, a run for his money.

Christopher Reeve, who has recently formed an impressive new career for himself in more serious roles, only agreed to don Superman's crimson cape and blue tights once more if the storyline was sufficiently unusual to attract him.

To this end, he participated in writing the Superman IV screenplay — and this included a worthy adversary with which to do battle. He found him in Nuclear Man, the creation of his old foe and arch enemy from previous adventures, Lex Luthor (which sees the return of Gene Hackman, revelling in comic villainy as the man you love to hate).

But you could be mistaken if you think that Superman vs. Nuclear Man is no contest. Even if the outcome is a foregone conclusion, there's plenty of excitement along the way and the final result is not signalled in advance. There's every chance for Superman fans to be sitting on the very edge of their seats rooting for the survival of the screen's most indestructible hero.

Superman also has a more personal reason that Planet Earth should not be devastated in the new film. In more serious mood, Reeve now confides: "It is also his home too, and he has to accept new responsibilities. Although Superman is an immortal, this is the concept I have woven into the story. He is as concerned as the rest of us that Earth should survive as a fit place for people to live in.

"In the previous three films he was just shown as an outsider, a visitor from Krypton helping his friends fight a just cause against tyranny. But now it's his fight too, which makes him more concerned. He's become a naturalised citizen of our planet.

"And the new story is also more contemporary than some of the past films. Superman is concerned about a nuclear holocaust, a message which is brought vividly home for him when a young schoolboy writes to his alter ego, reporter Clark Kent, at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. It's a plea he, as Superman, cannot ignore so he sets out to do something about it as only he can."

So where does Nuclear Man fit into the plot? He's the evil force who creates universal havoc as part of Lex Luthor's plan to destroy Superman.

"Our primary aim in making this film is to bring Superman several steps nearer to the very real world of today," affirms Christopher Reeve. Superman IV is still very much a fantasy, but there are elements in it which audiences can really believe in. And to do this he has to have a strong adversary who seems his equal and is capable of eliminating him.

"But, at other times, the old Superman is still very much in evidence. He does the things that are expected of him — like saving the Statue of Liberty, putting a stopper in an erupting Mount Etna and battling on the surface of the moon.

"To give Superman the new image he has for the rest of the film I needed to exercise a degree of control. Having this gave me a new sense of enthusiasm for the character."

As soon as the final screenplay was delivered, the casting call went out to all leading agents in Hollywood and Europe. Find Nuclear Man. And that's how Mark Pillow comes into the picture.

Although he has never appeared in a movie before, he fitted all the requirements to perfection. He stands 6ft. 4in. (the physical equal of Reeve) with blue eyes and blond hair to make him the screen's new golden boy. And he declares that Pillow is his real name.

He was born in Leeds, where his U.S. Air Force officer father was stationed. His mother is English, so he's no stranger to commuting across the Atlantic to add his support to Anglo-American relations.

Nothing in Mark's background suggested he would some day be a leading contender for movie fame. Far from it. He was restless as a young man and travelled extensively around the world while trying his hand at a variety of jobs, none of which seemed to suit his temperament.

Being the son of a military father, his travels took him through Europe, Brazil, Libya, Liberia and West Africa. "Then my family finally settled down in Houston, Texas," says Mark. "It was there I attended university taking a course in business studies, but I became a drop-out when that didn't seem right for me.

"One of my other subjects was nuclear energy," he laughs, "so perhaps it was always on the cards that I should play Nuclear Man. Maybe those years were spent in preparing for the role!

"But I had a lot of other jobs, too. I worked for an airline company for a time, then as a telephone lineman and later as a labourer on an oil rig. When I moved back to Los Angeles I was a bartender in nightclubs which left me free to take acting classes during the day.

"My first professional roles came in some unmemorable television shows which did nothing for my career. That all changed last year when I heard through the Hollywood grapevine that Cannon were looking for someone to play Nuclear Man in Superman IV.

"It's the first film in the series to be shot entirely in England, so that brought me back to this country again. Apart from the studio work at Elstree, a lot of the shooting was done on location at Milton Keynes which doubled for the city of Metropolis."

When the casting came for Nuclear Man, Mark obviously had a lot going for him. "They needed someone who was athletic for the part," he says. "I've always been interested in sports so I guess I must have passed on that score. I work out daily in the gym back home, and also while I was here in London.

"My favourite sports are football, baseball, swimming and the martial arts. Nuclear Man has to have a good head for heights. Like Superman, there's all that flying around to do. The clincher came when the producers heard I do handgliding and skydiving. I've competed in both sports professionally." The role needed someone who could do these things, so they must have counted in my favour." As well as Mark's Californian tan, of course.

The final stroke of luck was that the son of Sidney Furie, the Canadian director of Superman IV, works in the same talent agency that represents the actor in Los Angeles.

Like all good agents, he had Mark's photos on file and was able to produce them when his father was casting. A twenty-minute chat with Furie and he had no need to look further for Nuclear Man.

"I had a great time during the weeks I was playing the part," recalls Mark. "There was a lot of physical stuff required, of course, which made a big demand on the actors. The toughest test was getting used to the wires for the flying scenes. Chris Reeve as Superman could handle them as he'd played the part before, but it was all new to me.

"We have a lot of fight scenes together. Nuclear Man has a real mean streak and he knocks down the Great Wall of China just for the fun of it. He can also melt iron bars just by touching them. Superman doesn't get all his own way in this film. My character represents his biggest challenge yet. We circle the globe before we come face-to-face for the final climax. It's a real duel in the sun.

"John Bloomfield designed this special costume I wear in the film and Stuart Freeborn, who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, developed this special golden look which gives me a kind of glowing effect. Nuclear Man was conceived in Lex Luthor's hideaway on top of the Metropolis Tower Building and incubated in a nuclear reactor in the core of the sun."

There's no doubt that Christopher Reeve is the undisputed star of Superman IV, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Nuclear Man takes off too.

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