20 Questions: Dawn Steel

Many film industry observers would argue that selling a motion picture to the public is as important as creating one. No one knows that better than studio executive turned independent producer Dawn Steel. After marketing and merchandising novelty items through her own company, Oh Dawn, in the mid-Seventies, Steel came to Hollywood in 1978 and joined Paramount Pictures as director of merchandising. She created the first feature-film commercial tie-in with Klingons eating McDonald's Big Macs to publicize the film "Star Trek." By 1980 Steel was supervising the development and production of such films as "Flash-dance," "Top Gun," "Beverly Hills Cop 2," "The Accused" and "Fatal Attraction." Helping to redefine and expand the role of women in Hollywood, in 1987 Steel became the first woman to head a major motion picture studio--Columbia Pictures. During her tenure, she was responsible for the production of "Ghostbusters 2," "Karate Kid 3," "When Harry Met Sally" and "Look Who's Talking," among others. Having survived at Columbia for three years (twice as long as the average studio executive), Steel departed and independently produced the hit films "Sister Act 2" and "Cool Runnings," the latter of which has earned more than $150 million to date. Last year she wrote the best-selling book "They Can Kill You, But They Can't Eat You," which chronicles her journey through the Hollywood maze. Recently, Steel formed Atlas Entertainment in alliance with Turner Pictures and is currently releasing their first feature, "Angus."

Robert Crane caught up with the diminutive Steel at her production office in West Hollywood. Crane reports: "Dawn Steel is small, pretty, sexy, funny--and definitely in charge. You wouldn't want her to be pissed off at you."

1.

Playboy: Your autobiography is called They Can Kill You, But They Can't Eat You. How did the title come to you?

Steel: I was in labor and 24 hours later gave birth to my daughter on March 17, 1987. I had been having some difficult times at my job, and I was at odds with my boss. I knew he didn't like me, but I didn't know how much he didn't like me. In the hospital, my husband had gone down to the coffee shop to get a newspaper. He came back and I was feeding my child and blissed out. He looked at me with the newspaper under his arm and said, "I don't know how to tell you this, babe, but you got fired while you were in labor." I remember thinking, I will not cry, I will not let them make me cry. I have my daughter in my arms. I looked up at my husband and said, "You know what? They can kill you, but they can't eat you." I had heard that years before. Someone smarter than me had said it. But at that moment I realized that's how it felt. I'm still here.

2.

Playboy: Remember the film The Player? Is the real story more complicated or less complicated than that?

Steel: I hate that movie because it makes all of us in the movie business look like schmucks, and we're not. We don't murder people. I can't name one studio executive who's killed anybody. That movie makes really intelligent people believe that we are all immoral, amoral--and jerks, which is worse.

3.

Playboy: How do you get your way? Whom do you sweet-talk and whom do you bully?

Steel: I don't give up. I just annoy people until they give me what I want. I badger them.

I hope I don't bully anybody. It's not something I would be proud of. I want what I want when I want it and I'm very straightforward about it. One of my mentors used to call me "the tank." He said, "You put your head down and you just keep rolling forward until you get what you want." That's basically what I do. I just keep going forward. Jeffrey Katzenberg used to go to the front door. If they didn't let him in the front door, he'd go to the back door. If they didn't let him in the back door, he'd go to the side door. If they didn't let him in the side door, he'd go to the basement. You keep going in different orifices until you get where you want to go. You never give up. That's how I get what I want.

4.

Playboy: How do you know you've won an argument?

Steel: They hang up. They can't take it anymore. They want to go home and take a nap.

5.

Playboy: How would you define the word bitch? Are there other things you can call a woman?

Steel: I won't define it. In fact, it's a word I particularly loathe and don't think we should use. There's no equivalent for men. If I cut somebody off, he calls me a bitch. If I offend someone, he calls me a bitch. I strap on my balls, he calls me a bitch. I find it offensive. I am not a female dog. I don't understand how it came to mean what it means today. In my office, we don't use the bitch word. The C word is unacceptable. If you absolutely need to call a woman a name, you can call her a shithead.

6.

Playboy: Men are born with balls, but most don't use them. Women acquire balls and use them. Give us rules for wielding balls in a postfeminist society.

Steel: Always do it with humor. Men don't like having balls wielded seriously. Men don't like having balls wielded by women, period. Girls, I suggest you always have a gleam in your eyes when you're wearing your balls.

7.

Playboy: What can a woman tell a man about balls?

Steel: I once heard a pop psychiatrist say, "Ladies, leave your balls at home," which was weird because I would say wear your balls to the office and then take them off when you're going out.

8.

Playboy: Do men take their balls for granted?

Steel: Yes, completely, We're dealing with the image of balls as opposed to the psychological advantage of knowing you were born with balls. But, in some way, I always knew I was born with balls. It's much more comfortable for me than it is for you. Mine are figurative and yours are literal.

9.

Playboy: You make stars. Which star makes you weak in the knees?

Steel: Brad Pitt. I've had nothing to do with his career, though I hope to. I just want to be his friend.

10.

Playboy: Have you ever used a casting couch to your advantage?

Steel: Before I was married, I thought it worked only for men. It took me a long time to figure out that I could use it. That's a really different thing between men and women. I've heard specific references to it and, in fact, heard recently that a studio executive was caught giving head to a writer she wanted for a particular project. Whatever it takes, honey.

11.

Playboy: Please tell us three lies of Hollywood.

Steel: "I'll read the script tonight." "I'll get back to you tomorrow." "I loved your movie." No one sets out to make a bad movie, but it happens. If you're in a position where you get to see a movie before it's finished, you have an obligation to be completely honest. But if you see a movie after it's finished, and it's somebody you care about, you're not going to walk up to them and say, "I hate it." You're going to say, "Good for you. Congratulations. I really enjoyed it." I don't want to be too tongue-in-cheek about that answer.

12.

Playboy: Describe three danger signs of becoming "too Hollywood."

Steel: Number one is when you begin to think that you're different and, of course, you're not. Number two is when you get really angry if you (a) can't get a favorite table at a restaurant, (b) are made to wait in line at a movie theater rather than be rushed in ahead of the line, or (c) have to fly, God forbid, commercial. There's the car thing, which is mainly a male issue, when the cars get fancier and fancier and you look around and wonder, Can't they think of something else to do with their money? Finally, you have, legitimately, people who lose their temper way too easily because the stress level is way too high. When you finally get to that place, and I've certainly been there, it's time to go. People who don't know they're there don't know it's time to go. But I promise you, it's time to go.

13.

Playboy: What does Hollywood have too much and too little of?

Steel: It has too much money and too little integrity. In every business you find people who have honor and people who don't. There are only two kinds of people in the world, honest ones and dishonest ones. We have our share of dishonest people here. I think the problem is that we're all--and I mean all of us--paid way too much money, more money than we would be paid in any other business at our career levels. The union people who are just starting their careers are being paid so much more than minimum wage. So kids coming out of college are making $50,000 a year. That's a fortune. I'm not talking about the tens of millions of dollars that people like Tom Hanks or Bruce Willis make. I'm not talking about movie stars. I'm talking about regular people. Every day I thank the universe for putting all of this on my plate. The minefield for me is trying to avoid the people who are dishonest.

14.

Playboy: What have the Japanese learned from their incursion into the U.S. film industry? Should they have stuck to Godzilla?

Steel: They've learned to stay home. I think the Japanese have been ill-advised and they've made a mistake that is common in Hollywood, which is thinking that anyone can make an American movie. It's not true. Only Americans can make American movies. It is the most exportable product we have. It is the thing we're most noted for. An American movie is a calling card anywhere in the world. The Japanese can make Japanese movies, but they can't make American movies.

15.

Playboy: We never hear about your husband. How do you balance work and your relationship?

Steel: Chuck is incredibly solid and doesn't really give a shit. Work doesn't come anywhere near the importance of my relationship with my husband and my daughter. It became clear when I was at Columbia Pictures that I needed to figure out a way to do everything. There was this myth about Super-woman. She doesn't exist. Some days I was a great mother and some days I was a great studio executive or a great producer. But not every day. I can't be great every day. There were times I didn't get my legs waxed for months. It's an awful image, I know. Something had to go and it was my legs.

16.

Playboy: Who wears the pants in your relationship?

Steel: We both wear pants. My eight-year-old daughter wears pants, too.

17.

Playboy: What is the oddest file in your Powerbook?

Steel: My daughter's games. She's on my computer all the time and she's really annoying about it. We have all these games like Math Blaster and Spelling Buster and Shanghai Shuffle Puck. Do you know how annoying the sound is when the puck gets hit? I also have all sorts of bizarre letters because I have figured out how to fax from my computer. I have all sorts of weird correspondence. I'm not going to tell you with whom.

18.

Playboy: When a woman asks, "How do I look?" is it an invitation to be truthful?

Steel: For me it is. My husband doesn't miss anything. On one hand, I want to say to him, "Could you put on a blindfold?" He sees every zit on my face. On the other hand, I absolutely want him to be truthful with me because I don't want him to let me go out if I look ridiculous. If there's something I can do about it, then it's really helpful. But if he says, "Your nose is gigantic," there's nothing I can do. So I don't want to be told that. I'm a finished product, basically, give or take a couple of pounds and wrinkles. I want to be told the truth except for the things I can't change. Only certain responses are permitted, on things I can change. If he doesn't like my nose, what can I do about it?

19.

Playboy: What happened to tan lines?

Steel: The ozone layer. Gone. Skin cancer wiped out tan lines. Can we talk about sunspots? In the Sixties, I was lying out there on Jones Beach plastered with baby oil and iodine with a sun reflector surrounding me. I was really tan. Flash forward a couple of decades and now I have sunspots all over my legs from where I was sunburned. That's what happened to tan lines. No more sun. Sunspots and skin cancer--that's what you get from tan lines. I'm very neurotic about my sunspots, too.

20.

Playboy: With whom will you never have lunch again?

Steel: I recently read a book called The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. One of its great insights is that we should have compassion for every human being because we're all dying. I have compassion for everyone because everyone's dying, and I'll eat lunch with anybody because they're going to die. We're all going to die.