Parade Magazine - January 2000

How did the actor Lou Diamond Phillips get his name? No it wasn't a movie studio's or agents idea; it was his dad's. "I was named for a marine gunnery sergeant, Lou Diamond (a mortar man whose accuracy was legendary)," Lou told me. "My dad was serving in the Navy in the Philippines, and he read a biography of Lou Diamond. He was so impressed that he named me after him. When I became an actor, both Jack Warden and Brian Keith told me they actually met Gunny Diamond."

Well meeting Mr Phillips is also impressive. He's a hot ticket with two movies opening this year and another in the works. Out this week is Supernova, a doomsday thriller aboard a spaceship, starring Angela Bassett.

Then Lou has a cameo as a sheriff in Picking Up The Pieces. Woody Allen stars with Sharon Stone, who is murdered and cut up. Don't tell me Sharon Stone is never seen in one piece! Lou laughed. "Oh, there are plenty of flashbacks. Don't worry.

Woody usually writes and directs his films. But Phillips said "He's just an actor this time, directed by Alfonso Arau. I'd heard horror stories that he was reclusive but found him warm and social. We shot in a dusty Western town near Valencia, Calif., which may have been where they filmed Night of the Iguana."

Supernova was entirely another matter. "It was the biggest budget movie I'd ever been in", said Phillips. "We took up four sound stages. It took a long time. Cabin Fever. I adore Angela Bassett. She comes off as intellectual and regal, but she also has such a fun personality."

For all his film work, Phillips career moment to date may have been on Broadway, where he played the King in The King and I, earning rave reviews in a role that had belonged to Yul Brynner. Will he return to Broadway? "I am indeed looking," Phillips said. "I had to turn down The King in London, because we just had a brand - new baby daughter two months ago (he and his wife already had twin daughters), and it would have been a logistical nightmare. I am desperate to get back to New York. My wife is from New Jersey - with lot's of family.

I've put out a few feelers. If I could do a limited, 100-perfomance on Broadway in one of the classics..."

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