Drugstore Cowboy Does Factotum

from Burroughs to Buk in 20(?) years...


Last update: June 23, 2005 at 1:22 PM

Matt Dillon does it all

Colin Covert, Star Tribune

June 24, 2005 HERBIE0624.BAR

LOS ANGELES -- "Factotum" is a two-dollar word for a jack of all trades, a worker with the skills to do any number of odd jobs. That's the title of the noirish Charles Bukowski drama that Matt Dillon filmed in the Twin Cities last summer, and a pretty good description of the eclectic actor.

At 41, he has been a star for two-thirds of his life with a career path full of unexpected turns. He has grown from the Tiger Beat heartthrob of "Tex" and "The Outsiders" to the unrepentant drug fiend of "Drugstore Cowboy"; evolved from the toothy comic foil of "There's Something About Mary" to the writer-director-star of the atmospheric Asian thriller "City of Ghosts," and followed a breakout role as a racist L.A. policeman in this spring's ensemble drama "Crash" with a zany turn as Lindsay Lohan's NASCAR nemesis in "Herbie: Fully Loaded."

Dillon had just returned from France, where "Factotum" premiered as part of the Cannes film festival, and Scandinavia, where he was promoting the film with its Norwegian director, Bent Hamer. "Factotum," the story of a drunken blue-collar poet, is the second feature Dillon has made in Minnesota. He filmed the romantic dramedy "Beautiful Girls" with Mira Sorvino and Uma Thurman during the winter of 1995.

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