"I was too early for Star Wars, too late for 2001," David Bowie said as he sat on an empty orange crate in West Berlin, where Just A Gigolo was being shot. "It's not very profitable nor very rewarding in terms of thanks, to be ahead of your time." Bowie was well into his latest

reincarnation, one radical step removed from the Thin White Duke persona he assumed a few years back, upon dropping his Ziggy Stardust and Space Oddity roles. He professed to be more actor than singer, even though he has embarked on his first cross-country American tour in a few years. "It'll be good to get back," he

confessed, as though he might be criticized for this utterance. "I miss the vitality...Europe is so much older; it's like visiting an old aunt: it's nice to see the old dear once in a while and maybe dress up in her clothes, but after, it's good to get back home, to the mess and the noise."

When Bowie grew tired of his Hollywood lifestyle two years ago, he headed for Berlin, "a city made up of bars for sad, disillusioned people to get drunk in. I've taken full advantage of working there to examine the place... that's one of the reasons I was attracted the city." The controversial album Heroes was recorded in Berlin and, like Low, he did not promote it. Yet, he said quite seriously, "I believe in the last two albums, more than anything I've

more anything done before." Of course, this doesn't mean he will record much more of the same. If anything is consistent about Bowie, it's inconsistency. Some are charmed and amused by it, looking forward to next phase and sticking with him through thick and thicker, while others

have been alienated and eventually drop out of the singer's specialized orbit. Does this bother him? remain in the rock arena. It was a good way of putting my paintings on. I couldn't make it as a painter, so I put my paintings in another medium." If asked what he is, he would name a different profession each time, depending on his mood and setting. But he never mentioned singer or rock idol. "It's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that a rock artist is supposed to be everything he is on stage

"I never Intended to remain in the rock arena."

posed to everything on stage and records," he moaned, while puffing a cigarette. "I was never given credit for inventing it. People said it had to be me." As for what his true persona is, he said nonchalantly, "My persona, dear,

is so confused it even confuses me..." But at the moment, he would much rather discuss his fledgling film career

fledgling career than his singing or even his American tour. He was mesmerized by the fact that his co-stars in Just A Gigolo are Kim Novak and the legendary Marlene Dietrich, who was coaxed out of retirement to join Bowie on screen. Indeed, famous ladies seem to have a thing for him (one critic called it a tendency towards being fag-hags). Elizabeth Taylor publicly said she hoped to co-star with him, while Streisand has toyed with the notion of love story opposite the epicene sex

symbol. "There's talk of my doing a bio Frank," said David casually, referring to the much publicized project to him as Sinatra. "No comment," is Frankie has said of the casting. But English actor is full of plans and ideas transform himself into "the new Dali. love Dali's recognizability, his immedi-

ate recognition factor among connoisseurs, and afthe same time, his ability transcend categories and labels. one of my heroes." Another hero is Dietrich. A few Dietrich." Actually, he took it as a huge compliment, flattered to be in such exquisite company. He did not, however, appreciate the derogatory references to his bisexuality in the film Saturday Night Fever.

"I considered suing," he noted bitterly, but with a trace of a smile on his face. "But I thought, 'Why publicize that filthy movie any further?' I think it speaks for itself; there was no need in the world to introduce my name, and I've gotten hundreds of sympathetic letters and I understand Paramount and the people behind it have been pelted with complaints from groups and thinking individuals."

Asked about his current relationship with wife Angie, his expression turned stone-cold. This was one subject he would not discuss, no matter how one cajoled. When his female look-alike learned there was a good chance of David winning custody of their son Zowie, she tried to commit suicide by O.D.-ing on pills, stabbing herself and hurling her body down a flight of stairs. Fortunately, she recovered, but the episode became almost theatrical in the re-telling by tabloids and scandal rags on both sides of the Atlantic. Bowie was clearly pained at the mention of the subject, and friends have said it cut him deeply.

"Lord, I love my privacy," he remarked unprompted at one point.

I believe In the last two albums, more than anything I've done before.

He enjoys interviews and relishes fancy answers to fancy questions, but those in the know said he was relieved and somewhat delighted when each session was over. One friend offered: "It's his schizoid ability to change identity and musical style that makes his concepts work. His acting flair has enabled him to play the role as well as write the script. The total creation is his and his version is distinctively original, so original and convincing that his fans once believed it wasn't an act."

"I care an awful lot about the characters I created," Bowie said. "Ziggy and Aladdin were nice—quaint but nice. People have said, 'Do you remember the old rock 'n' roll with lipstick on?' Let it rest in peace, though...

"I mean, I look back on a lot of my earlier work and although there's much that I appreciate about it, there's not a great deal that I actually like. I don't think they're very likable albums at all. There's a lot more heart and emotion in Low and especially in the new album." Totally unaided, the singer had gotten back to the taboo subject.

"Record albums, stage appearances, even television spots, are all very ephemeral. Ten years after they've happened, they're a vague memory. Twenty years after, they're forgotten and 30 years after, they no longer exist. Everybody wants immortality, and I'm no exception. By now, I'm no longer experiencing my first wind, so it's time I got down to business and began leaving a legacy on film."

Despite the less-than-successful critical and public reaction to The Man Who Fell To Earth, the star was pleased with the final product. "At first glance it seemed cold and overly contrived, but there's a very simple message in that film: belonging and an attempt to escape loneliness, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. At the time, sci-fi wasn't that marketable, but with the advent of Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, I feel there's a good chance of it breaking out, if the distributors give it another chance.

"However, I'm not too secure about their doing that, because in Hollywood money reigns supreme, and minor sellers are rarely given a second chance. That's one reason I also want to get into producing, directing and other aspects of film. I hope to become a total filmmaker, like Orson Welles, Chaplin, Woody Allen and Mae West...!'

Mae West?

"Absolutely! Another of my idols... I would love to do what she did: be considered very sexy and affect sex more than anybody before or since, but without ever becoming explicit, gross or overly exposed. Less, as they say, is more. But one mistake I would never make would be to become trapped in a persona or genre or set of looks and gestures that would keep me locked-in forever. That would be the worst possible fate, and I'd sooner retire to Tibet before allowing that."

Why did he take on Just A Gigolo?

"I love the story, I love the subject," he puffed, sitting very still and pensively on that fragile-looking orange crate. "I've gone from a futuristic film to a period piece, and I've tackled a subject I'm fascinated with: that of gigolos, male escorts and male hookers for women. I've known various individuals in those professions, yet I've found they're rather inscrutable and difficult to get to know; therefore, the role is that much more of a challenge...

"It also allows me to display a more sensual, sexual side of myself that was totally lacking in The Man Who Fell To Earth, where I didn't even have any genitals. Then, too, I get to play with Kim Novak—I didn't mean that to come out as it did—I've been a fan of hers for 100 years. For me, she's the peer of Marilyn, and equally as exciting. She was more real, and in a way that made her more relevant. Monroe

iT'S time I got down to business and began leaving a legacy on film.

was the embodiment of our dream lives, Novak is the embodiment of delicious, attainable daydreams.

"And at her age [she's 45], she has a marvelous sense of herself and

what she wants out of life, that she didn't have in the 50's or 60's. She now makes films only when she wants to, and she doesn't particularly care about box office or status projects. She says she's happier than she's ever been; I find working with such diverse people —unlike the tight little world of rock or music in general—one finds gurus who can teach and disseminate knowledge and inspiration...

"But La Dietrich [he can't get himself to call her Marlene, although she has repeatedly invited him to] is a walking dream, a joy to work with. She sits quietly in the corner and she knits or scrubs furniture or the floor—you'd never notice her if you didn't know who she was. But then the lights turn on, the camera clicks and she becomes the external sex symbol, the embodiment of angst, an angel of tired mercy. "The look in her eyes in bottomless. It's eerie and somewhat frightening, Most people have only lived, but Dietrich has Lived, and you see it in the eyes—when she takes off the sunglasses she's so partial to... Working with these two women has been worth all that's gone before, and I only want to work with them and others like and unlike them again. I can't tell you how eager I am to see the finished product, even though I don't expect it to be a major commerical success. In fact, I'd be somewhat disappointed if it became a smash—the public at large has such appalling taste, you know, that its approval is an artistic kiss of death.

"I only hope I'm never involved in anything on the popular scale of Jaws or Star Wars."

Bowie was far less brittle and asexual than he seemed on record covers, posters and other media images. His voice was typically restrained and soft, his manner somewhat gentlemanly and his eyes inevitably searching. It was as though they carried on an interview of their own, trying to divide the world into friend and foe. Although Bowie is an introspective, intellectually inclined being, he shares most performers' intense need to be liked or at least tolerated. He denied being actively concerned with adulation:

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"I only need it on a personal, not an artistic level," he said. "My work is something I believe in at the time, and I measure its success by its ability to move and touch me, to put me at ease after I've created it. It doesn't please anyone else, that's fine, because everyone should have the opportunity to paint, to film, to sing live, to see what the experience is like. Only he should have final critical approval of any given project of his...

"But as for friendliness and acceptance, I crave it as an individual, as a social creature. I'm not a swinging social butterfly, but I do enjoy giving and taking with other people. I don't like walking into a room and being stared at or whispered about. I abhor cruelty and lack of tact. I cannot stand people who believe there's only one sexual standard in the world—or artistic or moral or religious or anything.

"As far as I'm concerned, the more

unalike we all are, the better. That means we can better appreciate our common ground, rather than trying to fly off in all directions. If we know we're different and accept our differences, we won't have to become neurotic in taking them too far or attempting to justify them. It's not that I have anything against neuroses, for they are the root of genius, but neurotic people are strictly a drag."

What of David Bowie's next metamorphosis? Did he see himself someday giving up roles, personas and synthetic accoutrements in favor of one self, one concentrated endeavor?

"No, I'll never settle down mentally," he smiled. "I'll always be diving deep down inside, dragging up new little people until I've colonized an entire world. And then I shall seek other worlds..."