ML - Vegas Magazine

2013 - Issue 7 - November

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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"I hope you haven't gotten to know me well." It was an odd goodbye from a man who had just spent 40 minutes talking about his role in Last Vegas, a Strip-based comedy with Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, and Morgan Freeman. But that's Kevin Kline, the cerebral actor who, at 66, is the most unlikely of celebrities to star in a Vegas bachelor-party romp as a guy hitting the Strip for a wild time in the name of celebrating his pal's first trip down the aisle. The scenario of Last Vegas, out November 1, is simple enough: As lifelong friends Sam (Kline), Archie (Freeman), and Paddy (De Niro) creak into old age accompanied by the standard senior complaints—health problems, outliving their wives, nonexistent sex lives—their buddy Billy (Douglas) is a lawyer playboy in Malibu whose obvious spray tan and the threads of a man half his age indicate that he has never grown up by settling down. But after spontaneously proposing to a woman half his age, he's finally getting married. Naturally, the guys must head to Vegas, no fewer than 40 years after their most recent bachelor party. Kline is often the comedy break in what, despite Hangover comparisons, is at heart a moving story of four men forced to stare down old age and the devastating effects that 60 years can have on friendship. But all of that male bonding happens to occur while they're reacquainting themselves with the "new" Vegas, with hilarious results. The classics all make it in— hangovers, young women, bar fights, VIP hosts. The men even judge a bikini contest with Vegas regular Redfoo, of the quirky LMFAO. Kline's character is the guy who hits the pool with old-man socks, a floppy hat, and opaque sunblock on his nose, but the actor insists that aging in Hollywood is more complex than assuming a guy nearing 70 doesn't know how to look cool at a Vegas pool party. (In real life, Kline is the youngest of the Last Vegas foursome.) "It's funny," he says, "aging in real life and then the professional aging, where you're suddenly being offered parts where you're the professor, or the father, or the old friend—they don't run exactly parallel." Maybe not exactly, but Kline does have a somewhat professorial demeanor. He is famously reluctant to talk about himself, but unlike many Hollywood heavy hitters, he doesn't even like to talk about his work. When put under a microscope, he theorizes. Even seemingly innocuous topics trip up this deep thinker. A question about being in Vegas, for example, yielded several minutes on how an actor on location can't truly answer that, concluding with, "I can't say my experience in Africa or Las Vegas or Italy is typical. Is the work going well? If the work's going well and everybody's being cooperative, then that makes it a great place." If great work makes for a great place, then based on his portfolio, Kline's passport must be stamped with some pretty amazing locales. His private nature has allowed him the career of a true chameleon. A virtually clean slate, he has never been typecast and has always enjoyed taking on roles with as much diversity as possible. He has been in Hollywood for more than 30 years now, and his movie career spans the swashbuckling musical The Pirates of Penzance, the heavy love story Sophie's Choice, and the zany comedy A Fish Called Wanda. Later hits include films as varied as the hilarious Dave, in which he played both the president and his look-alike; the drama The Ice Storm, a memorable peek into the swinging '70s; and the smart comedy The Pink Panther. "Kevin is the most versatile genius I've ever worked with," says Last Vegas director Jon Turteltaub. "He does heavy, intense drama or slapstick comedy with equal ease, imagination, and confidence. It's hard to wrap your brain around the fact that it's the same actor in The Big Chill and A Fish Called Wanda. He changes so much movie to movie." Kline's signature thoroughness and overanalysis aren't saved for press "It's hard to wrap your brain around the fact that it's the same actor in The Big Chill and A Fish Called Wanda." —JON TURTELTAUB VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 93 090-095_V_F_KevinKline_Nov13.indd 93 10/22/13 10:25 AM

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