In the hostage thriller Suicide Kings, five prep school buddies kidnap a former Mafia don.
They intend to use him as ransom to free the sister of one of the boys from her kidnappers.
The boys are played by Henry Thomas, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto and Johnny Galecki. The Mafia kingpin is played by Christopher Walken, who has made a career of playing edgy, unpredictably dangerous characters - so it's pretty obvious things are not going to go as smoothly as the young men planned.
Peter O'Fallon, who directed Suicide Kings (which opens Friday), says he never thought twice about who he needed to play the Mafia don.
"You read the script and it screams out for Chris Walken because you need someone who can strike fear into the hearts of the kidnappers and the audience even though he is strapped to a chair, drugged and bleeding from an amateur amputation," explains O'Fallon.
"No one can unsettle an audience quicker and more effectively than Chris Walken."
All five of Walken's young co-stars were pleasantly surprised when they eventually met the man with the piercing eyes and haunting voice.
"Chris comes across as being eccentric and bizarre on screen and those images stick with you," explains Thomas. "Once you get past his theatrical eccentricities, he's so interesting. He's been acting for almost 50 years so he has plenty of great stories to tell.
"In between takes, we'd sit around listening to him."
Thomas made his movie debut playing one of Sissy Spacek's children in 1981's Raggedy Man. Two years later in Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extraterrestrial, he played Elliot, the young boy who harbors the alien and helps him get back to his planet.
Flanery, the star of TV's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, feels that Walken "has a perception of being weird because of his speech patterns and his mannerisms. That weirdness lasts about seven minutes and then he's just an ordinary guy who has a funny kind of accent.
"It's because Chris is just a little off centre that he's had such a successful career. People don't pay good money to see ordinary, dull actors."
Sisto discovered that Walken "has a great sense of humor. He knows what people's perceptions of him are. He knew we'd had our preconceptions and he had a bit of fun at our expense.
"He's a very giving actor and a really genuine person but there's no question he has an edge to him. It may have all been acting at one time but it's definitely part of his personality now."
Sisto made his screen debut eight years ago in Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon and has since starred in such films as The Crew, Clueless, The Hideaway, White Squall and Moonlight and Valentino.
Galecki, who's best known as David Healy on TV's Roseanne, recalls he worked up the courage to tell Walken that the actor is "one of the most talented actors on this planet and a few others. He has a real self-deprecating sense of humor so he liked my joke but then he said there's more truth to it than I intended.
"Chris says he's from planet showbiz and it's always been considered the weirdest planet in the galaxy."
Of all the young co-stars in Suicide Kings, Mohr had the most to fear from Walken.
During his brief stint on Saturday Night Live, Mohr developed a killer impersonation of Walken on a series of skits called Christopher Walken and his Psychic Friends.
"Lots of people claim to be able to impersonate me and some have even done their routines for me. I never recognized myself until I met Jay. I think he does a better impersonation of me than I do. He's definitely got my vocal rhythms," says Walken.
Mohr explains Walken "has a very distinct speech pattern. He stresses the wrong syllables in certain words and he turns one-syllable words into two and even three syllables.
"Once you can master his technique, he's pretty easy to do. Chris loved hearing me impersonate him and we even worked out routines in which we'd talk and sing together.
"It's a really big man who can laugh at himself and they don't come any bigger than Chris.
"It might be interesting to watch Chris play an ordinary guy-next-door type but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as letting him play the weirdos he's so good at playing."
It's Walken who best puts his image into perspective.
"If I was anywhere near as weird as the characters I play, I'd never have lasted as long as I have in this business and I've been acting for more than 30 years."
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