20 Questions: Rae Dawn Chong

Rae Dawn Chong's first picture, at 19, was "Quest for Fire," in which she introduced ancient man to the missionary position. Her most recent film is "Soul Man." In the intervening five years, the daughter of comic actor Tommy Chong has graced Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Commando" and Mick Jagger's video "Running out of Luck," as well as "The Color Purple," "Choose Me" and "Beat Street." We asked Contributing Editor David Rensin to do for money what we'd gladly do for free: meet with her. "I found Rae Dawn in the kitchen," Rensin recalls. "She grinned, giggled and said she was a big fan of '20 Questions.' "

1.

Playboy: Are good looks a curse or is that just a myth propagated by good-looking people?

Chong: They can be a curse. However, unattractive people are much more obsessed with looks. In Hollywood, unattractive and powerful people can be the most cruel about looks. Especially people who do casting. Last night I saw Charlie Sexton, the young musician. He's so good-looking. I don't remember listening to a note of his music until I'd heard about seven songs. And then I thought, Oh, yeah, music.

2.

Playboy: How would you describe yourself to a blind man?

Chong: A lot of times I act like a blonde. There's a lightness about me. I'm very open-faced. I have sort of round features, but they work somehow. I smile a lot. I have a wicked sense of humor. I have a good mind, but I don't like to bore anyone with it. And I love to laugh. I've got a mass of curls, this smooth skin that's a neat color, and I'm all lips, teeth. I'm just a bunch of smiles.

3.

Playboy: Who has the best set of lips you've ever seen?

Chong: My favorite lips on a woman--Kim Basinger. She's got killer lips. And on a guy, Charlie Sexton by far. He's been mentioned twice. I'd better mention my boyfriend quick before I get kicked out [laughs]. He's got the best lips that I've leaned into lately. Mick Jagger, of course, has the most famous lips, but I don't think they're the prettiest. The most beautiful belong to Helena Bonham Carter. Like Genevieve Bujold's, her mouth is so attractive and alluring.

4.

Playboy: You've done lots of screen nudity. Does it bore you yet?

Chong: Yes, totally, absolutely, 100 percent. Even seeing a boob or a guy's butt is just boring. We've all seen it. We go home to it; we are it. Suggestion is the art of eroticism. Last Tango in Paris is probably the last successful movie where it was just out there--a classic on every erotic front. 9-1/2 Weeks was a bust. I'm anxious to do a real erotic script with no sex in it. You can seduce an audience without taking anything off, just like you can seduce a man without taking anything off, without even touching him.

5.

Playboy: You went pretty far in the full-length video for Running Out of Luck. How do you remember the experience?

Chong: Oh, God, it's almost like porn on my part. I hated the whole love scene. That was always a bone of contention. But I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with these guys, Mick and the director, Julien Temple. I was always promised it was going to be dark lighting, but when we got going, they took advantage of me. I probably should have stopped and said, "Look, this is just too much." But then, in terms of the context of my character, she would have done it. It was just too bad that we didn't have candlelight. What can I say except that I did it? I'm not embarrassed. It wasn't totally disgusting, and it wasn't Inside Rae Dawn Chong. It was no worse than what Sonia Braga did in I Love You or anything else, and we certainly don't think that she's a walking putana. We think she's brilliant. So I'm not going to say, "Oh, it was just terrible and awful." It was what it was. But I learned something. If I work with a director who wants to do some sex scenes, I hope that he'll understand if I say, "Let's make this hot; let's not make this gross."

6.

Playboy: Was Jerry Hall on the set during the love scenes?

Chong: No. She was far away. I don't think she knew or would have gone for it. I don't think she read the script [laughs]. But I don't think Mick was sneaking it--their relationship isn't so healthy or unhealthy that she would stand by and watch it. She's very jealous, and probably rightfully so, though I never gave her anything to be jealous about.

7.

Playboy: You once said you wanted to meet Sting. You have one minute with him. What do you say and what do you do?

Chong: I guess I'm getting busted on this one. I once had five minutes with Sting, so I'll tell you what really happened. I looked at him and said, "I really like your music and you're great." He had on sunglasses, so I couldn't enjoy what I like best about him--his eyes. It was raining. He walked to a window. I said, "Oh, it's raining." He said, "Yes, this weather suits me." And then he turned around and said, "Well?"

He's totally cool and he's the greatest guy, but I wish I'd never met him. What can you do with five minutes with somebody? Strip him naked, not talk about anything, and let's Last Tango it for about a day or two or three and that's it. With someone like Sting, it almost has to be sexual. Mind you, he'll probably hate reading this, because he'll think, I've got so much to say. People know he's a heavy dude; he's got a lot more to talk about than his latest records. But who cares? You want people to get down on their knees and say, "I love you." But they never do. They always have wives, girlfriends and ex-wives, anyway. Nah, I don't want to ever meet anybody I really care for.

8.

Playboy: Your dad's professional-doper persona parodied the attitudes of the baby-boomers. However, today's teens seem to have serious drug problems. Do you think your dad's generation is responsible for that?

Chong: I grew up in that very pro-experimentation Sixties environment. But my father and his group never said, "Yes, it's cool to do drugs." What they said was cool was that desire for experimentation; do what you feel, so you learn. I'm frightened about my kid's future and what the kids are going through today, because it's more a result of degeneracy than of experimentation. Nancy Reagan's got a big job, because the reason kids do drugs now is that the world is in trouble. The United States is in trouble. There's nothing honest about our Administration. So why should the kids be honest? Kids today are not motivated to do drugs for the same reason that my father was. It's more a numbing of their senses. It's out of despair. But what my dad did was something that bound his generation together. Not so with kids today. That's scary. Ask any average 16-year-old about any issue, and he or she will look at you and go, "Well, what's so important about that, man? Give me another Madonna record." Passivity is killing us more than drugs. The kids don't care. They don't fucking care. So they kill themselves.

9.

Playboy: What are the advantages of growing up in a Sixties environment?

Chong: My inhibitions are not rooted in guilt. I sometimes suffer the consequences of that, because I'm much more freethinking and I don't judge. Also, growing up with all these different races inside of me makes for some really bald truths. I don't need to belong to a group, and that's really a strong thing. I pity people who need to belong to a group for their roots. Your roots should be in your soul. My upbringing freed me. I don't feel guilty because I make mistakes. I feel good, because that's life.

10.

Playboy: Where do you draw the line?

Chong: I have moral inhibitions. I wouldn't hurt anyone, because I wouldn't want anyone to hurt me. I wouldn't take somebody's boyfriend away. I don't believe in killing things or people. [Pauses] But I'm not a vegetarian. I'd kill a cow, for sure. Kill that chicken! Just call me Mahatma Chong. [Laughs]

11.

Playboy: Defend Cheech.

Chong: Cheech?! The great thing about Cheech, and what people will discover, is that he's wickedly talented. I used to go on the road with Cheech and Chong when I was a kid. Cheech would be the first one to throw a washcloth at the stewardess; then everybody would follow suit. He and my dad used to use my sixth-grade class for background sessions on their albums. And Cheech would get us all into a sound booth and then fart and close the door and leave us in there. We would be dying.

12.

Playboy: How much trouble do you have getting roles because you aren't white?

Chong: Any role where people are resistant to my skin color, that's fucked. They're afraid it distracts. Now, this could be totally wrong, but I really wanted to go up for the Daryl Hannah role in Legal Eagles, and I heard that Robert Redford's people were not interested because of the black/white thing. And I would have fucking aced that role--I'd be so good opposite a major male star as a romantic interest. When I went up for American Flyers, the part was for either a 30-year-old American Indian or a 30-year-old blonde. When I walked in, I hadn't read the script. Also, I was wearing all leather, and I had my hair zapped out. I looked like Mad Max, not some docile Indian woman from the Midwest. The second I met John Badham, the director, I knew I was dressed completely wrong. But my kid, who happens to look like me--only he's white and blond and very beautiful--ran between my legs and jumped up onto Badham's piano and said, "Oooh, a helicopter." And Badham went from looking at me and probably going, "Oh, God, she's really wrong for this" to "Wow, look at this great, beautiful kid." That moment was all I needed to keep going and get the part.

13.

Playboy: What's your favorite muscle on Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Chong: [Laughs] His stomach. He's got a gorgeous stomach, just beautiful. Every muscle on Arnold's body is sickening; he's so perfect. It's not that he's the largest or the hardest or the most outrageous, it's just that he's in proportion.

14.

Playboy: Which spirits moved you?

Chong: Buckminster Fuller was a real guiding force. Also Baba Ram Dass. I read his book, Be Here Now, when I was 11. It saved my ass completely. My father was a great influence spiritually, because he's such a Buddha. I'm a real believer in power. The people who are very powerful have had what I call conscious deaths. Their egos have died a couple of times in their lifetimes. Once you've had that, no one can hurt you anymore. No one can take anything away from you. You just gain. That kind of understanding is really power.

15.

Playboy: Have you had a personality death?

Chong: Yeah. My son had a brain dysfunction that almost cost him his life. At the same time, my relationship with my husband fell apart, and I hadn't worked in two years. I had five cents to my name, a kid in intensive care and a husband who was worthless. And when everything is the shittiest it can possibly be, you die. There's nothing to hold on to, so you surrender and say OK. It was really hard on me, and if I hadn't been blessed, I would have probably gone over the edge and become horrible. But instead, I remember just looking through a window. One pane of glass was very clear and one was opaque. And I flashed that life was like that. It's all perceptions. I could get hung up on the bullshit or the clarity. I've never looked back since then.

16.

Playboy: But seriously, what's Whoopi Goldberg really like?

Chong: I love Whoopi very much. Not only is she busting a lot of stereotypes but she takes a lot of the responsibility off me. Whoopi is blazing a trail for black women--for just black anything successful. She's not a white-looking black woman. She's getting everybody's consciousness ready, so when someone like myself, who is milder on a lot of levels--and yet I think could be just as deep and just as intense--comes along, no one will make it such a big issue. Then I can just get on with the fucking stuff. I can just bank my millions and be happy that I am who I am.

Still, I often ask myself if I have to be a 30-year-old ex-junkie who lived in Berkeley and who did stand-up comedy in Germany before I can get some respect.

17.

Playboy: What's the toughest item of clothing for you to find or buy?

Chong: Well, I'm a shopper extraordinaire. But I have one of those bodies that things fit right on. I don't really have much trouble. I was going to say mohair underwear. And cruel shoes.

18.

Playboy: Are there any male-fashion trends of the Eighties that you wish would disappear?

Chong: Men liking other men! [Laughs] I guess white socks with bell-bottoms. Skirts.

19.

Playboy: Quest for Fire was your big break. How did you research your role as a prehistoric woman?

Chong: We studied a bunch of chimpanzees. In London, there are these great parks and private estates. There are a couple of families that own gorillas. I don't understand the English fascination with primates, but who knows?

20.

Playboy: We'd like to thank you for introducing the world to oral sex in that film.

Chong: That wasn't oral sex. I was putting something on a wound that happened to be in that area. The director was being very cheeky and definitely tricked me into doing the first head shot. I did, however, introduce the missionary position, and a lot of people have thanked me for that.

our favorite free spirit speaks out on lips, crossing color lines and the difficulty of finding mohair underwear