TIM Allen talks about appearing in Wild Hogs, the legacy of voicing Buzz Lightyear and working with a bull…

Q. How do you account for the incredible success of the movie in America – and the fact that it has appealed to so many women?
Tim Allen: I think because America is tired of the Spartans! Seeing our poster, you want to see these four guys on a trip, no matter what we did they cast us beautifully. You want to see this group of people doing what they’re doing. It’s a real simple movie, like some of the best comedies are. We don’t overthink it.

Q. Do you think you might feel the need to do anything similar to your character when you reach middle age – eventually?
Tim Allen: The only time it occurred to me was when I turned 50. My brother sent me AARP, which is a retirement magazine. It didn’t occur to me until I saw that. But I got really depressed for about a day because I think Bob Hope once said: “If you didn’t know how old you are how old would you be?” I’ve stayed about 11-years-old, really, with my fascination with telescopes and astronomy.

Q. Is it true that you used to ride sports bikes?
Tim Allen: About 15 years ago I went to race school and I ended up driving Trans-Am for Ford. Then after that I took bike lessons. I haven’t taken sports bike lessons. I have a Ducati 990 and also a Norton, both set up for road racing. And because of this movie, two of the guys on it are going to send me to superbike school, because I want to learn.

They’re actually more interesting to me than the Harleys because the Harleys are like sofas; they’re great for long distance cruising but to me they’re a little dangerous when it comes to manoeuvring them.

Q. Was it actually a hindrance then, to have that sports bike experience?
Tim Allen: Yeah, because the brakes don’t quite work. I don’t want to say anything against Harleys because they do what they do, but the Ducati guy said: “You don’t try to stop them’.” Once they get going they like to keep going, and a couple of times we were by the special effects trailer and I was showing off for the guys, and I got into the corner of this police course they set up for us, and I said to
myself: “Boy, there’s no way I’m going to make this turn!” William H Macy almost fell over laughing because of that look of terror you get.

Q. What was it like having Peter Fonda on the set?
Tim Allen: I wanted Eddie Izzard, but they wanted to go a different way. He’s one of my favourite comics, but he didn’t have an evening dress that would fit a motorcycle.

Q. How was working with the bull?
Tim Allen: The funny thing was, they used several bulls and they had to get them real tired, or they wouldn’t have sent us in there because it would have killed us. My daughter was on set with us one day, and a bull went by us at high rate of speed. It had cowboys chasing it because it had gotten out of the pen. I don’t think they ever caught that bull. I don’t know where it was going.

My daughter then said: “What do they do with it?” It gored one of the horses and just took off down this road. I thought it was a good thing that wasn’t the one we were slapping on the ass, because that would have been a different movie.

Q. Does this mark something of a change of pace for you given that it’s less of a family orientated movie?
Tim Allen: Can you imagine what it was like for me, getting to work with John and Ray, these guys. It was a no brainer, it was so great, every single day with these guys was a gift.

Q. Did the camaraderie ever give way to any one upmanship?
Tim Allen: In a fun way I guess, we all have a lot of mutual respect for each other. Everybody had something they do really well, and it was nice to watch everybody work. But John is pretty aggressive on a bike, let me tell you. Ramming me, he thought that was real fun, he’d chase me around.

Q. You mostly do comedies but do you ever hanker for more drama?
Tim Allen: I get a lot of psycho killer parts but I turn a lot of those down. Ray Liotta takes a lot of those. I did one a while back with Christian Slater called Cletis Tout, and what happened was, it was a little terrifying for families to see me shoot three people through the head in the opening scene. It didn’t go well.

I’m not going to buy into it completely but Martin Short once said that with funny guys, you sign a contract with people so that’s what you’re going to do. I’m comfortable with that, I do it well.

One of my favourite actors is Russell Crowe, but comedy doesn’t come easy to the guy whereas it does for me. But he can do Master & Commander and it’d be very hard for me to be in one of those hats. As much as I’d like to do it, I get caught in the groove I’m in, and though no one likes to be typecast sometimes that’s what it is.

Q. Has the legacy of Buzz Lightyear stayed with you throughout your career?
Tim Allen: Yes, you bet. It’s so funny how organic it was. At that time Pixar was literally three Mac computers up in a garage in northern California, and they came to my house and we dallied about what the character would be like. He said he wanted to get Tom Hanks to get Woody, so we kind of developed this wonderful character right there, at the dinner table of my house in Michigan actually.

And then cut to this iconic thing where, in elevators, I can frighten children into thinking I’ve eaten Buzz Lightyear. I talk, and they cry: “Oh my God, Buzz is inside that ugly man!”

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