A native of Chicago, Illinois, Belushi attended DuPage College and Southern Illinois University where he graduated with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts. He was a resident member of the famed Second City improvisational comedy troupe from 1978 through 1980 before launching a television and film career. Television writer-producer Garry Marshall saw Jim perform and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the television pilot "Who's Watching the Kids" for Paramount and then a featured role in "Working Stiffs." His other television credits include writing and performing on "Saturday Night Live," the Faerie Tale Theater production of "Pinocchio," "Royce," "Parallel Lives," "Wild Palms" a miniseries for Oliver Stone and ABC, "Sahara" for Showtime as well as writing and producing HBO's "Birthday Boy."
It was his role in the Tri-Star film "About Last Night" with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore that first brought Belushi to the forefront, playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theater Center's production of David Mamet's Obie-Award winning play, "Sexual Perversity in Chicago." His resume reflects a wide range of roles such as James Woods' spacey DJ buddy Dr. Rock in the 1986 Oliver Stone film "Salvador," the mentally handicapped dishwasher befriended by Whoopi Goldberg in the Andrei Konchalavsky film "Homer and Eddie," the defiant high school principal who defies drug dealers in "The Principal," as well as starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Walter Hill's "Red Heat." Other starring roles include "K-9," "Curly Sue," "Taking Care of Business," "Once Upon A Crime," "Mr. Destiny," "Only The Lonely," Michael Mann's "Thief," "The Man With One Red Shoe," "Real Men," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Traces of Red," and, most recently "Separate Lives."
Belushi has performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner's acclaimed play "Conversations With My Father," at the Cherry Lane Theatre off Broadway, in "True West", the Williamstown Theater Festival production of John Guare's "Moon Over Miami", and as the Pirate King in the Broadway company of Joseph Papp's "Pirates of Penzance."
Belushi again stars with his cigar smoking friend, Arnold Schwarznegger in the most recent Holiday movie, "Jingle All The Way," for Twentieth Century Fox, along with the yet to be released "The Peril of Being Walter Woods," "Retroactive," and "Gang Related" with Dennis Quaid and Tupac Shakur. Brother "Z" and the Blues Brothers Band provided this years half-time entertainment at the Super Bowl....
Q: We're here with Jim Belushi, at the Cigar Cellar in Santa Monica. Jim, its no secret that you're a big Blackhawks fan.
A: I'm a huge Blackhawks fan. I love Chelios, and Peter Wirtz and Bill Wirtz who run the team. I was a Blackhawk celebrity captain during the seventy-fifth anniversary year. I got to fly in a plane with them to the playoffs. That's the year they went to the Stanley Cup. They actually didn't win; but it doesn't matter, they were there.
Q: If I may, I want to take it back early on to Second City. Who did you study with at Second City? Or did you study with anybody at Second City? Or did you just go on to the main stage?
A: I was in a touring company for a year, with guys like George Wendt, Burnadette Brurkette, Jim Sherman, Larry Coleman; and then I got moved up into the resident company after a year. And you know, you learn from each other. I studied with George Wendt. We all studied together; and our leader was Del Close, and Fred Cass, and Bernie Sahlins. And between those three guys, they were the keepers of the context there, of the education. And they gave it to us as we were ready to learn it.
Q: Did you study acting formally, outside of second city?
A: I studied in high school. I studied in college -- I was a speech/theatre major. I was in many plays, musicals, films, television; I've done a little bit of everything Jon.
Q: I gotta tell you that I live in the Western Suburbs. And I know that you grew up on Elm Street?
A: On Elm Street in Wheaton. Ya sure. I went to Wheaton Central and I used to go to Glen Ellyn for the fireworks. Really good fireworks.
Q: I don't know whether you've seen C.O.D. lately, College of Dupage. They've blown the place out. I mean, its an amazing junior college.
A: College of DuPage is one of the great educational institutions of that area. I learned a lot there. Richard Logan just retired, he taught me a lot. Their theatre program, their speech program; all their programs are great. They're very conscientious there. And we also have the "John Belushi Scholarship Fund" at the College of DuPage, which puts students through school. Well, it's not necessarily for the brightest student, or the most talented student; but its for the student for whom this scholarship would effect a positive change in their life The theatre program. I didn't know what I was going to do when I went there and that program changed my life.
Q: Tell me a little bit about the Scholarship.
A: Well, we just had a Fund Raiser with the House of Blues here in Los Angeles. We had a Smoker and raised close to $100,000.00 for the Scholarship Fund. The Blues Brothers Band played and I sang with Danny Aykroyd. Sam Moore came and sang and everybody came. We were smoking cigars and singing and raising money and auctioning things. We had a blast.
Q: That was out here in Los Angeles?
A: Yes, Los Angeles on Sunset Strip. By the time this comes out the House of Blues in Marina City will be open . 48,000 square feet of pure entertainment. It's a hip joint opera house. It's going to be the best musical venue in the country. I'm really happy that we're doing this in Chicago. We're spending close to 20 million dollars on this place. It'll be a gem in the Chicago scene.
Q: It's good to see something happen in the Marina City because it's been a great location for a long time that has been ignored. Will it be three floors?
A: Four. Four floors, restaurant, concert level. We'll have sky-boxes almost. It's going to be a two level concert hall, a private area for the Foundation members which is a Foundation that raises money for again education within the cities that we are in.
Q: As far as a career movie for you. Would it be safe to say that "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" or IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was a career breaker for you?
A: "Sexual Perversity in Chicago." I did it at the Apollo Theater on Lincoln Avenue. Jason Brent and Stuart Okum sold it to Paramount and Denise Di Clue and Tim Kazurinski, from Chicago, wrote the screenplay of "ABOUT LAST NIGHT." I got in it and it changed my career. Absolutely changed my career -- overnight.
Q: So that was right to say that that movie was huge for you?
A: That was the one. That was the biggie. You would think that someone swearing and talking about sex so much --(shrugs shoulders). I guess people wanted to hear it.
Q: When did you move out here to L.A.?
A: In 1986 when that movie came out. When "ABOUT LAST NIGHT" came out.
Q: What do you find different living here opposed to Chicago.
A: Well, there's no street life here except for this area where the cigar store is.
Q: Santa Monica?
A: Santa Monica, yeah. The Third Street Promenade.
Q: When you say street life what do you mean?
A: When you're in Chicago you're always walking on the street. Smoking on the street, sitting on the steps, watching girls walk by. Here you see girls walk by from your car. Here they really don't have Italian Beef, the pizza's OK, no Hot Dogs to speak of, the food scene. I mean they really have nice Italian foods and very elegant stuff here also, but ---. Yeah, I miss the urban street kind of feeling.
Q: How often do you come back to Chicago?
A: I'll be coming this month to open the House of Blues on November 23rd. I'll be coming to Chicago a lot more now that House of Blues is there. Probably play with my band, "The Sacred Hearts", and we're playing with the Blues Brothers Band and hopefully we'll be shooting the Blues Brothers 2000 next year so we'll be in Chicago for that.
Q: Is that going to be a full length feature or an animated cartoon?
A: Well, it's a full length feature and also there's an animated cartoon that's coming out next Fall. It's a Blues Brothers Animation and me and Peter Aykroyd are playing Jake and Elwood Blues.
Q: In the animated or the full ---
A: In the animated. In the full length feature Jake isn't there. It's Elwood, me as Brother Z and John Goodman who's Mighty Mac. Mighty Mac Blues. Im Brother Z Blues.
Q: That's in the full length feature?
A: Yes.
Q: Who's in the Blues Brothers Band?
A: Steve Cropper, Blue Lou, Mr. Fabulous.
Q: See, you got the Band back together.
A: Yeah. They're back.
Q: What other films are coming up?
A: I've got a film I'm really happy about - one I just recently shot called GANG RELATED. Dennis Quaid is in it, Tupac Shakur plays my partner in it, Leila Rashad, James Earl Jones, Gary Cole (Chicago actor). Loved seeing Gary on the show. Oh, man, I love him.
Q: Did you work with him before?
A: Yeah, I worked with him in "True West" at the Drury Lane Theater in New York, in the Village. We had a blast together.
Q: Was that a cop movie - GANG RELATED?
A: Yes, it is a cop movie. Tupac and I play two cops. We're selling drugs to drug dealers and taking the money and then .... I'm not going to tell you what we do.
Q: As long as we're bringing him up, what was your take on the guy?
A: He was a great man. Wonderful man. I fell in love with Tupac. He was very street, had a great rhythm in his acting and was extremely pleasant and a gentleman.
Q: The gang situation in Chicago is certainly different than it is here in Los Angeles. Is there a positive message to the film?
A: That's the thing, we might change the title. It's really not about gangs. It's called "Gang Related" because when there's murders on the street and you're a homicide detective you determine if it's gang related or not. If it's a drive-by shooting you say it's gang related and what happens is they really don't find the guy who does the shooting. Because those drive-by's you just never know. I mean you can't get information out of the neighborhoods. Nobody tells on anybody. So it's gang related and it goes down unresolved and that's the premise of the movie. It's about unresolved gang related murders.
Q: You've played a cop in probably a handful of movies already. If you hadn't gone into acting do you think you might have been tempted to be a cop?
A: I would have been a great cop. I wanted to be a cop because I got busted all the time. I think I wanted to be a cop so I wouldn't get busted anymore.
Q: You got busted for stupid stuff, right?
A: Stupid, ya, stupid, stupid stuff. Ya. I was a stupid kid.
Q: No. You know, pranks and stuff...
A: Well, or stolen vehicles, batteries, theft, ah... a number of other...
Q: That we won't get into right now.
A: I got busted eleven times in one year!
Q: Was that in Wheaton?
A: Uh, in Wheaton, ya. They didn't like me. I used to deliver pizzas in Wheaton, and I could barely get the pizzas to the houses because the cops would stop me every time I saw them. They wanted my ass. Then I got,... The nerve of the guy who used to bust me, was my arch nemesis,... Cooper,...Cobert,...Cubert. Uh, what's his name...? Anyway, he wrote me a letter. Wanted an autograph, and wanted to take credit for being part of my life and success. I was like, oh man, this guy's really got a problem.
Q: And your answer to him was?
A: I sent him a picture.
Q: (laugh)
A: You know, he's in Internal Affairs now. Ah, Police Internal affairs, DuPage county. I sent him an autographed picture saying "Don't get shot".
Q: Now, you've opened this store called the Cigar Cellar and you've got how many stores?
A: Well, we have a Cigar Cellar store in LaJolla, California, down in the San Diego area; we've got one in San Diego; we've got one here in Santa Monica; we're looking to open one in Chicago; and we're looking to open, actually make it a big-time cigar enterprise, and open fifteen different cigar stores, in the next six months, all over the country.
Q: Do you have a favorite cigar?
A: Well I'll tell ya, lately I've been smoking these Fuentes. I really, really love 'em. The Fuente Fuente OpusX, Don Carlos. And when I used to get cigars from Diana at UpDown Tobacco Shop, I used to get the Hemingways. Love the Hemingways! Well then, my favorite cigar is one that's lit.
Q: Or the free one somebody just gave you.
A: Ya...
Q: When did you start smoking cigars?
A: I started smoking at the UpDown Tobacco Shop. Um, my first cigar was back in 1980, when I was in that area. But I really started smoking about eighty-eight. Right when I started working with Arnold in "Red Heat". We shot "Red Heat" in Chicago, Arnold Schwarzenneger and I. And he was smoking all the time, so its like, you know, either choke from the smoke or join him.
Q: "Choke from the smoke", that's the "phrase that pays". Choke from the smoke...
Did your dad smoke cigars?
A: No. He smoked cigarettes, Chesterfields.
Q: Did you work in the store; in the restaurant?
A: Ya, I was in the restaurant business. I worked for my dad in Morton Grove and in Forest Park Restaurant for probably about five years. Boy, if he didn't lose those businesses I'd be serving lunch today.
Q: Weren't you partners, or somehow involved with the rib place on Halsted, Stevie B's?
A: Yes. My good friend Stevie B. had a rib joint called Stevie B's, and it still exists. We sold it to a fine gentleman named Chris on Clybourne, which is still going strong. And we're actually trying to get the sauce for the House of Blues in Chicago.
Q: Can you share a cigar story with our readers?
A: Well you know, great cigar stories are really shared among great people, and there's a story behind every time you smoke a cigar because you're always sharing it with someone you really adore, you know? Like after my son was born, I had a cigar with my cousin Gus Demis, who lives in Chicago.
Q: Have you ever been to your native coutnry Albania?
A: Yes. I was in Albania last August, a year ago August.
Q: For the first time?
A: For the first time. Yes.
Q: What was Albania like.
A: Oh, it was, uh, you know, this country was under, you know, Fascist rule, although they called it Communism, for about fifty years. And so its a country that's just learning to breathe and get up on its feet. And I loved going back there, along with my dad and my son, and Gus; and did a complete "roots" trip. And it was wonderful. My dad hadn't been there for 62 years, and I took him a year ago August, and it brought back a flood of his childhood, and then he passed away shortly after that. So it was a real nice circle to his life.
Q: Ya. Are there still Belushi's over there?
A: No. There are not too many Belushi's left.
Q: (Laugh). But you're carrying it on...
A: Were running extinct.
Q: Now, does this happen; I mean, I don't know whether this would happen in L.A., but I know in Chicago if a guy saw you just walking down the street you'd get, "Belushi!". You know, I think guys would just go nuts and yell at ya.
A: Oh ya, I get that all the time, especially in Chicago. Ya, people are very nice to me. I feel very good. When I go to Chicago, I feel like I'm home, I'm connected, I'm rooted. I guess the same way my father felt when he went back to Albania. You know, I kind of observed it, and he lived it; and when I go to Chicago I live it.
Q: Well I know I lot of guys from Chicago think of you as an ambassador to the city.
A: Well, they used to call me the mayor of Wells Street. You know, I always try to represent Chicago the best I can. I mean I even speak at the Convention, the Chicago Convention of Tourism. They have a thing every year and I speak there. You know, I'm always promoting Chicago. That's why, I think its great to have The House of Blues there. I'm really happy that we finally went to Chicago. And we'll bring a Cigar Cellar there, we'll bring movies there. You know, the center of earth is Chicago. Its the center of the Mid-West. Its where everything is rooted in reality.
Q: Center of the earth (laugh)?
A: Well, its not the center of the earth, but its the center of the country.
Q: I like the "center of the earth".
A: Ya,I think it's the center of the earth. Great sports teams, great Italian-beef sandwiches, great ribs, great people...
VIVA CHICAGO!