Stan Lee speaks out on Spidey’s success, a possible Kevin Smith collaboration, and “Stripperella” Pamela Anderson
Sure, the lines to see Spider-Man may have been around the block, but you should have seen the crowd who showed up to meet Stan “The Man” Lee–the comic book legend who gave life to the wall-crawler and other icons including the Incredible Hulk, the Silver Surfer and Daredevil. Fans packed the Virgin Megastore on Sunset Boulevard to talk to “The Man” and get a personally autographed copy of his newly released DVD Stan Lee’s Mutants, Marvels and Monsters, on which the septuagenarian superhero scribe dishes all the dirt to filmmaker/comics fan Kevin Smith. (The DVD’s worth it for the true story behind Stan’s catchphrase “Excelsior!” alone.)
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As energetic as the costumed crime-fighters he has crafted, Smilin’ Stan gave Hollywood.com the lowdown on Spidey, the next wave of cinematic superheroes, his own screen stardom and getting into bed with Pamela Anderson (um, business-wise, that is).
On not letting Spider-Man’s smash success and his becoming a media darling all over again, four decades after co-creating the character with artist Steve Ditko, go to his head:
I really think I’m taking it very well…I didn’t do the movie. I mean, those guys are the geniuses. I was in the audience, I watched the movie, I felt just like a fan. I sat and applauded and I cheered and I loved it.
On allowing himself (no stranger to self-promotion) to take a little credit for the strength of the source material:
Well, of course that’s one of the reasons it’s so good. [Laughs]
On the wealth of upcoming Marvel film projects, in which–just like in the comics–his presence is always noted:
I had a little cameo in Daredevil. Mark Steven Johnson–who’s writing and directing it–is so brilliant. He’s doing such a great job. Daredevil looks wonderful. The Hulk–as you know, it’s being directed by Ang Lee. I hope to have a cameo in that, when they come here I’m going to be on the scene…You see, the thing is, deep down they all know is the main thing that brings people into the theater is that they’re gonna get a chance to see my cameo. Then they figure, ‘Well, we’re here already. We might as well see the rest of the movie.’ [Laughs]
On fans–including filmmakers like Kevin Smith and Bryan Singer–remembering his four-color career better than he does:
There are so many people–Kevin knows a LOT about the old time stories I wrote and so forth. Gene Simmons of KISS, also. He has a photographic memory. This guy, he knows everything ever written, what panel it was in, where the dialogue balloon was. I have no memory. I have never had a memory. In fact, when I wrote all my characters I gave many of them names beginning with the same letter, like Peter Parker [Spider-Man], Reed Richards [Fantastic Four’s Mr. Fantastic], Bruce Banner [The Incredible Hulk] and on and on. When I couldn’t remember the name, if I could think of one of the names I had a hint that the other name began with the same first letter.
On the possibility of collaborating with Smith–who once penned a year-long story arc on the Daredevil comic book–to bring a Marvel property to the big screen:
I’m a big fan of Kevin’s. I was in his movie Mallrats and I was very impressed with the way he directed it. He even got a good performance out of me. Any guy who can do that…[Smiles]. I would love to work with him on a film. Ever since we did the DVD I’ve been so busy doing interviews I can’t get any work done. I haven’t had time to call him, and I believe he’s working on a movie now so we’re going to have to wait until people run out of questions to ask me so that I can contact him again.
On the renaissance of Marvel Comics after several rocky years that included a Chapter 11 filing:
Needless to say I’m thrilled. Marvel is certainly coming into its own now. It’s always been a great company but for some reason we were never lucky on the screen. Then it started with Blade and then the X-Men, now Spider-Man. Now we have to figure out how to make The Hulk even better and Daredevil even better than that! And The Fantastic Four better that that, and the Silver Surfer and Iron Man…It’s not gonna stop!
On whether the CGI Hulk is more fearsome than Lou Ferrigno in green body paint:
I’ve only seen the coming attraction, which hasn’t really shown him. They did show me something when I was on the set, but it was so primitive there I don’t think it was the final version of it.
On Spider-Man exceeding the huge box-office grosses of Batman, which was created by the late Bob Kane, Lee’s colleague, frequent dinner companion and friendly rival:
Oh, I think so. I’m really sorry that Bob Kane is no longer with us, because we were very good friends. We always kidded ourselves about it. I think even though he did Batman, he would’ve enjoyed seeing what happened to Spider-Man.
On creating the upcoming animated series Stripperella, with the lead character voiced by Pamela Anderson:
That’s an entirely different ball game. That’s one I’m doing through this new company I formed and she’s going to be an animated cartoon television series on TNN starting the beginning of next year. She’s an exotic dancer but she’s also a secret agent, so it’s gonna have thrills and chills and action and excitement, and be quite sexy–but clean sexy. To my mind there is no such thing as dirty sex [grins disarmingly]. Pam and I are very excited about it. I love to think that at this very moment she’s saying how excited she is to be doing it with me. [aside] Please, if you quote me, say I said it with a laugh so I don’t look like the biggest idiot in the world!
