Peter Weller said thatRoboCopwas one of the best films he ever made, but the other two he considered great were wildly different from Paul Verhoeven’s cyberpunk classic.RoboCopleft an indelible mark on Peter Weller’s acting career. It was hugely popular - it’s still one of thebest cyberpunk movies from the 1980s, and one ofPaul Verhoeven’s best films- and it largely kick-started Weller’s career. Weller clearly understood how important and fantasticRoboCopwas, as he returned for the sequel and even voiced the character again in the 2023 video gameRoboCop: Rogue City.
Peter Weller even calledRoboCopone of the greatest films he ever made, but he highlighted two other, more surprising, movies at the same time. He even went as far as to say that some of his earliest films were “real clinkers.” Weller has made plenty of great films over the years, fromStar Trek: Into Darknessto his time voicing Bruce Wayne inBatman: The Dark Knight Returns. However, in the early 1990s, Weller only thought three of his movies could be considered great.
In 1992, Peter Weller Said RoboCop, Shoot The Moon, & Naked Lunch Were His Three Best Movies
Weller Said That He Only Thought Of Three Of His Films As Great At The Time
In an interview from 1992, Peter Weller explained that of the 22 movies he made up to that point, he only considered three of them to be great (viaTimes Colonist).RoboCopwas among them, but the other two were quite surprising: 1982’sShoot the Moon, in which Weller played Frank Henderson, and 1991’sNaked Lunch, in which he starred as Bill Lee.
“I’ve had 20-something movies. Some of them are good, some are mediocre, and a couple are real clinkers. The three that are great: ‘Shoot the Moon,’ the best assessment of the sadness of divorce in America; ‘RoboCop,’ and ‘Naked Lunch.’ That one was the most satisfying and challenging thing, stage or screen, that I have ever been involved with.”
Weller has made dozens more movies since 1992, and he likely considers a few of the newer ones to be “great,” butit’s still astonishing thatRoboCop,Shoot the Moon, andNaked Lunchare the only ones he was truly proud of in 1992. It’s also worth noting that Weller thought David Cronenberg’sNaked Lunchwas the best of the bunch, and that it was the reasonRoboCop 3had to cast Robert John Burkeinstead. Another interesting tidbit comes fromShoot the Moon: Weller only had a supporting role in that film, yet he ranked it above films he starred in, like 1988’sShakedown.
RoboCop, Shoot The Moon, & Naked Lunch Highlight Peter Weller’s Range
Nobody But Peter Weller Could Make Such Wildly Different Movies & Consider Them All Highlights Of His Career
The fact that Peter Weller only considered three of his pre-1992 movies great is a surprise in and of itself, but his actual picks were also very shocking.RoboCop,Shoot the Moon, andNaked Lunchare all good films, but they’re also wildly different.RoboCopis a gory, brutal, and ultimately pretty silly cyberpunk action movie.Naked Lunchis a surreal adaptation of a book that was a symbol of the counter-culture in the 1950s.Shoot the Moonis a somber and often depressing look at the causes and effects of divorce on a family.
About the only thing that tiesRoboCop,Naked Lunch, andShoot the Moontogether, aside from being Peter Weller’s favorites, is how much of his range as an actor they display. InRoboCop, Weller plays a police officer turned into a robot who grapples with his own humanity and the decaying corporatism of America. InShoot the Moon, he plays a woman’s new boyfriend during and after a particularly messy and grim divorce. InNaked Lunch, he plays a man heavily influenced by psychedelic drugs who goes on a surreal covert mission at the behest of anthropomorphic insects.
Weller’s favorite movies that he acted in couldn’t be more different, and he couldn’t have played more different characters in them.Anyone who can go from starring in a campy, action-packed thriller likeRoboCopdirectly to an exceptionally weird and anti-authoritarian film likeNaked Lunchhas tremendous range. More than that, however, Weller’s favorite movies highlight just how varied his artistic tastes are. He may be best known forRoboCop, but Peter Weller has had such a long and storied film career specifically because he can see art in a wide range of movies.
