Graydon Carter: Vanity Fair's main man talks to Hollywood's brightest star about magazines, moguls, movies and much more

NK: People who enjoy what they do and have enthusiasm for what they do are infectious to be around.

GC: I think it's important if it's a collaborative affair and, outside of painters or writers, it is a collaborative affair. First of all, it should be fun.

NK: Always. You must have a sense of humor. The industry really needs the eccentrics, the wild people. That's something we lack today.

GC: Vincent Gallo! [both laugh] That's who you have now. It all comes down to him. We have Vincent and that's it.

NK: But I think you need people to shake it up a bit. It's a little boring now.

GC: The thing is, the second somebody does not behave like a Wall Street banker, the people who deal with that person start thinking life is too short. And they just drift away from them.

NK: Well, I don't know. I mean, what is Hollywood? I don't think Hollywood is actually L.A. Hollywood is just the business in general. It exists everywhere. You can be living in London and you're still Hollywood

GC: That's true.

NK: Because the world is so small now, Hollywood's more a mentality, I think.

GC: It is probably a mentality. And it's also a large business in which every studio is owned by something larger than themselves. In the old days, the studios were the thing to own. They were run by proprietors rather than by larger corporations. Nowadays studios are basically content providers, the way the magazine divisions and television networks are, so they're diminished in what they can actually mean. But I still think movies are the most profound American art form to come along in the last 100 years.

NK: I agree.

GC: The power, the collective feeling of watching people watch a movie, is unlike anything else. It's not like radio, television, magazines, books, newspapers or art. It's this huge thing. I even noticed it when I had 22 people In Robert Evans' screening room; there's something nicely collective about it, it's kind of a warm, cozy feeling.

NK: Yeah. You participate, whereas a lot of times now people are so isolated.

GC: Well, when you send a magazine out, say a million copies of Vanity Fair, you don't actually sit there and watch people reading it.

NK: No.

GC: You'd like to.

NK: I do. [laughs] In the doctor's office.

GC: Yeah. You look over somebody's shoulder.

NK: I can't stand that though, people reading over my shoulder. Do you like that?

GC: No. I don't let them.

NK: Not even when you're having breakfast and someone reads over your shoulder?

GC: I sit on the stoop where I live in New York and read my newspapers. I'm like the mayor of my block. [Kidman laughs] It's a very cozy feeling.

NK: I know you're originally from Canada, but do you consider yourself an American now? A New Yorker?

GC: I'm an American now, but I'd say I'm more of a New Yorker. I think most New Yorkers think of America as the dark continent out there. They're not quite sure what they'll find when they hit the small towns, in the same way that people from small towns think of New York and Los Angeles as strange things on each coast. But I came to America to be in New York, not just to come to America.