I’ll cop to being a bit scared this morning, waiting for Christopher Walken to arrive for our chat about his new movie, Around the Bend. Not scared, mind you, in that I have any sense of awe (which I do). And not scared about whether he’ll be in the mood to talk (not a sure thing). But scared of Walken himself, or rather, the Walken we all know so well—the wild-eyed, dicey, capricious Walken, who walks a cinematic razors-edge between dry humor and dangerous instability. I opt to make him laugh, put him (and me) at ease. The potential downside: one slip of the tongue and he might shoot me point blank with a smile. It could happen.

Around the Bend finds a world-weary Walken playing a tragic absentee father coming to terms with a distant son and a dark secret. "I play a lot of slimy, cartoonish people. This guy is not a regular guy, but he’s a very messed up, damaged guy. He’s in terrible shape. He’s literally dying. Most people’s lives are not so sad; so disappointing. That’s a good thing. But there are people that have done something thirty years ago that ruined their life. He’s a guy who did a really stupid, bad, self-destructive thing and ruined his life. And I think everybody can relate to that."

On his iconic movie coolness, which can’t be manufactured but seems to come out of Walken when he breathes, he’s humbled and almost a bit skittish. He’s also the most imitated celebrity on the planet. "It’s great when people do that," he muses. "I remember when it started to happen. I think it was Jay Mohr. Did you ever see him when he did it on Saturday Night Live? Very funny! My wife says that Kevin Spacey is the best.

"I have peculiar way of speaking, I guess. I mean, there must be something to imitate. Punctuation, I think. I just have an odd punctuation. When I was a kid it used to bother me that they told me we had to write an essay- it bothered me when they’d say, ‘The period goes here. The comma, here. This is capital. This is a question mark.’ And I thought, ‘No, it’s not! It is if I feel like it.’"

When the subject turns to the 70s, a great decade for Walken, who won the Academy Award for Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, Walken recalls his early forays into movie auditions. "I tested for things early on that when I didn’t get them, I was very disappointed. But in retrospect I am so lucky I didn’t get them. I tested for Star Wars—for Han Solo. Can you imagine? I wouldn’t be here now. It would have been the end of my career, and maybe the end of Star Wars! I tested for Love Story. Can you imagine if I’d have gotten that part? I’d be out of here."

But what about his approach to building such eccentric and often creepy characters? "I’m a big studier. I go off the words. I have the script at home on the table. I go over it hundreds and hundreds of times. I do it with different accents until something starts to sound right. It’s like listening to people talk. Some people, you believe them when they’re talking. I believe that you don’t have to know what an actor is talking about. But you have to believe the actor knows what he’s talking about. I try to take the script and know exactly what I mean when I’m saying everything and that’s why I need to know my lines."

Unexpectedly, Walken has of late developed a cult following for his frequent dance numbers that some think began with Fatboy Slim’s Spike Jonze helmed "Weapon of Choice" music video. But Walken’s been dancing and singing for decades as a veteran of musical theater road shows. He adds, "I never knew I was going to be an actor. My whole background, until I was in my thirties, was in musical comedy theater tours. At some point I went and took some acting classes, but basically I was already formed, you know?"

He dances again in Around the Bend, only this time with an impromptu, feverish late night rock and roll groove. Says Walken, "It was in this script. I don’t know if it was in because I was there, but I’m starting to think that it’s enough and that I have to stop doing that. I think I’ve overdone it."