‘He should play Sean Connery’: Billy Zane, the ‘Titanic’ villain who still drives the internet wild at 60

The majority of the time, social media is a vortex of evil — but on occasion, miraculously, a group of people get together to create a friendly corner. And indeed, a ray of light shone in the digital realm of cowardice and body shaming when the world rediscovered actor Billy Zane (Chicago, 60 years old) via an interview at the premiere of the final season of The Boys. A journalist asked him a question about whether he preferred his role in Tombstone or Titanic, and what sparkled was not so much the content of the performer’s response — a joke about the catering on Titanic and the episode in which part of its cast was drugged with angel dust — as much as his ease in answering, and his relaxed and attractive look.

He sported his typical appearance of recent years: a thick, gray mustache; shaved temples; and elegant plastic-framed glasses perched on his gleaming skull. It was enough to stir up excitement. “Wow, he’s so handsome. He ages like fine wine,” reads one of the comments. “I love Billy Zane — I’ll watch anything he’s in!” goes another. Zane’s appearance won’t surprise those who have followed his prolific career, but it does stand in contrast with other actors of his generation whose surgeries and cosmetic procedures place them at an ambiguous, distorted age, an age that has no equivalent among real people outside Hollywood and the world of celebrities.

But it’s not just his natural allure, his deep and dark eyes winking at his Greek heritage, that perfect jaw, fleshy lips and age-appropriate appearance. It’s also Zane’s charm. “This man continues to look great, he’s eloquent, he has a wonderful sense of humor and a smile that could light up a room,” is one of the many comments that pay tribute to the actor.

Many pointed out his resemblance to the quintessential James Bond. “He should play Sean Connery in a biopic,” says one person. “He’s slowly turning into Sean Connery,” notes another. Like Connery — and this is certainly worth a mention — Zane wore a toupee early on in his career, but both reached the peak of their sex appeal when they ditched it. Stars like John Travolta have taken a similar journey. And although he seems completely content with himself, Zane sometimes admits that he misses his old look. “My future self wants my hair,” he admits in a comment on his Instagram account, where he’s quite active.

He still hasn’t played Connery as per the internet’s request, but he has taken a turn as another canonic heartthrob of classic film. In Waltzing With Brando, one of his most recent roles, he stars as Marlon Brando in one of the lesser-known eras of the turbulent Last Tango in Paris luminary, when Brando hired an architect to design an ecological retreat in Tahiti.

The man who could dance

Beyond their beauty, there are few similarities between the biographies of the tortured Brando and the relaxed Zane. The latter’s parents, who had ties to the dramatic arts, facilitated his access to acting, and he had an easy arrival in the industry. When he had been in Hollywood for just a few weeks, he went to a casting to be one of the bullies from Biff Tannen’s gang in Back to the Future. “A true baptism by fire,” as he once recalled. He did the scene twice, once with Eric Stoltz, the original Marty McFly, and then with Michael J. Fox, who ultimately wound up with the role.

“Stoltz was a great actor; it was a tremendous experience. [With Michael] it was a completely different movie, but really fun. It was nice to have a second opportunity on your first try,” says Zane. His character returned for the sequel, but he didn’t have much time to celebrate. Soon after, and at the last moment, Zane lost a role that would have changed his career: Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing. In the final round, there were only two couples left: Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, who would wind up in the film, and Sarah Jessica Parker with Zane. “I danced, but he was a professional dancer. I knew how to move, but I wasn’t a Broadway star,” Zane recalls. Some traces remain that point to what the most famous love story to come out of the Catskills would have been like with him in the role of dance teacher.

Zane doesn’t regret having lost that opportunity. He thinks it would have led him down a road that wasn’t calling him at the time. “I probably would’ve ended up posing on movie posters with a gun and the word ‘cop’ in the title. Carwash Cop! Kickboxer Cop!” Plus, he thinks that triumph would have stripped him of one of his best roles, that of Hughie Warriner in Dead Calm (1989), a contemporary suspense classic. During its filming, he was fully aware of its importance. “When we were flying back I thought, ‘If the plane goes down, at least I’ll have this movie.’”

Based on a cult novel by Charles Williams, the thriller in which the world discovered Nicole Kidman saw Zane performing as a dangerous presence. We met a restless, dark and sexy version of the actor. It’s the role that put him on the map — but he thinks that in a certain way, it also put him in a box. “At that time, I was known as “bad boy on a boat,” he remembers. “Got a boat? I’m your guy, just add water.” But another director saw something different in him: David Lynch. According to Zane, against all odds, Lynch summoned him to Twin Peaks at a time when he was seen as “the most tweaked-out psycho, to be the Gary Cooper, straight-laced guy.” And that was precisely the kind of role he was looking for. In the second season of the series that would cause a TV revolution, he embodied John Justice Wheeler, the boyfriend of Audrey Horne, a good boy in the most troubled town of the small screen. He didn’t hesitate to accept the role. “I mean, there are few words you hear on the phone that make you want to sit down and go, ‘Wha-whaat?’ ‘Yeah, you’re playing Audrey Horne’s love interest on Twin Peaks.’ You’re, like, ‘Excuse me! Check, please. Is that a fainting couch? Incoming!’”

He would go back to being the straight-laced guy in The Phantom (1996), a classic superhero film that did not achieve its expected success, but which Zane continues to adore. “It got a lot of stick early on because it wasn’t edgy at a time when all those movies were going dark,” he said. “I’ve always held a torch for what I saw as a dying genre, which was adventure. I was raised on adventure, and I think it’s so easily overlooked as how critical it is to young boys and girls.” The worst part was not the film being undervalued by critics — though some did appreciate its old-school charm and Zane’s passionate performance — but rather the public’s lack of interest, leading to box-office returns that failed to cover even half of its budget. Its opening weekend coincided with that of The Rock, Mission Impossible and Twister. The Phantom was a movie from another time, and was part of a larger trend of revitalizing other comics classics like Dick Tracy and The Shadow.

But there was no time to cry about it — soon after would come the biggest hit of his career. And once again, he was in the role of the bad guy: Caledon Hockley, Rose’s classist and insulting boyfriend in Titanic. He had become the villain in one of the biggest-grossing films in cinematic history. “Titanic was a double-edged sword,” he says. “It expanded my sphere of influence and awareness; it’s quite an international calling card. It extended my privileged access to heads of state and captains of industry who perhaps identified with that character,” he jokes. But he also considers it “like wearing a pair of golden handcuffs.” From then on, he became firmly typecast as Hollywood’s favorite villain, which greatly limited the kinds of roles he was offered.

The movie was his biggest triumph, though he prefers playing lighter roles, like his character in Only You (1994), one of the ‘90s rom coms inspired by the hits of Nora Ephron, in which he starred with Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei. Or, his turn in the two installments of the Zoolander franchise. An extremely short appearance, just a cameo, it nonetheless has its legions of fans on social media. It was Owen Wilson’s fault — the two saw each other at a New York runway show and Zane was cast forthwith. “Listen to your friend Billy Zane. He’s a cool dude,” Wilson says at one point in the film to Ben Stiller. It’s a phrase that continues to be pegged to Zane, and pops up in all his interviews.

“I swear I get more love for five minutes of playing myself in that than 30 years of character work,” he says. He’s also been receiving adulation for his hilarious role in The Boys. He knows he is beloved and popular, but also that his career hasn’t reached the same heights as those of other actors from his generation — not to mention, his co-stars inTitanic. “I’ve been in projects that are simply terrible,” he admits; though the fact doesn’t seem to worry him too much. He lives his life at a relaxed pace, attending conventions, directing, producing and painting to considerable success. In fact, he says that if he no longer has to accept roles just for the money, it’s thanks to how highly his art is valued. And besides, as a journalist reminded him at that interview for the premiere ofThe Boys, “the internet is obsessed” with him. That’s not the kind of award that glints on a shelf, but it does leave it clear that he’s still “the cool dude.”

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