In the dotage of his final years, the author Charles Bukowski was known to throw typewriters at intrepid reporters and fawning fans who dared call around his place to pay homage. But only because he had mellowed out. His earlier fantastical semi-autobiographic output – notably Post Office, Ham On Rye and Factotum – reveals an individual much less given to compromise. Through his literary alter-ego, Henry Chinaski, Bukowski repeatedly played up the starving artist, the actual and metaphorical modern hobo, the barfly philosopher, only to comically demythologize the lot with lurid accounts of the purple blood one spews when dog-rough alcohol has eroded virtually all of the innards.

When you meet Lili Taylor you can’t help but think she gets the Bukowski punch line more than most – that sidestepping all opportunities for bad faith doesn’t necessarily land you in good, comfortable places.
“Oh, I hear that,” she starts. “That’s stark clear to me. But you know, there’s lots of things I’m disappointed about and a lot of things I’ve learned but I don’t regret anything. Frankly, I‘d almost sell out at this point. I‘m still open to offers. I‘ll say no, but I‘m open."
Commendably, she’s even flown herself to the London Film Festival in order to promote Factotum, a fine new adaptation of the novel by Norwegian director, Bent Hamer. In the film, Taylor perfectly captures the essence of archetypal lost, hilarious Bukowski dame – she’s two parts liquored-up moll, one part fuck-machine (as the script observes “she had a tight pussy and she took it like a knife that was killing her”) – with a lopsided Chaplinesque gait to match.
“I think Bent really did it with this script,” she cries excitedly. “I really do. He knew to avoid the pitfalls. If you go too far into the heavy drunkenness aspect, it’s just relentless. Who gives a shit about watching that?”
Okay, so Lili Taylor wants to share her chips rather than throwing a typewriter at you. But, in her way, she‘s just as singular and out there a talent as Bukowski was. Throughout her acting career, she’s dabbled in everything without selling out. She’s flirted with Hollywood; her first major film role came playing Julia Roberts’ girl-buddy in 1988’s Mystic Pizza and popped up in Jan Du Bont’s utterly silly 1998 remake of The Haunting alongside Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta Jones. She’s also worked with any number of noted directors – for Oliver Stone on Born Of The Fourth Of July, Robert Altman on Pret A Porter, Abel Ferrara on The Addiction, Alan Rudolph on Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle.
Perhaps more obviously, Ms. Taylor is the lady who could have deposed Parker Posey as reigning Sundance queen. Her performances in independent sector films such as I Shot Andy Warhol and Girls' Town proved Taylor as perhaps the most gifted actress of her generation.
It seems, however, that the 38-year-old is far more interested in her craft than in jostling for position. During recent years she’s been happy to spend more time in theatre and television, a choice she claims is dictated solely by interesting roles.
“In a way theatre has been more kind to me,” she explains between chips. “There are so many problems with film. I’ve done three that just haven’t surfaced. I love film but it’s so limiting right now. Nobody’s taking chances. Financial people are making all the relevant decisions even when it’s an indie film. It gets my goat, it really does.”
Lili Taylor grew up in Glencoe, Illinois, a town founded by her family, though she says that aspect “wasn’t a big deal”. The second youngest of six children, she quickly took to performance as a means of securing attention. Her interest in acting deepened during her teens when she was misdiagnosed as a manic-depressive. To this day, she consults the DSM, the primary diagnostic manual of psychiatric disorders, to construct the characters she plays.
“Looking back I think I was a typically depressed teenager,” she says, shaking her head. “But it did come in useful. It taught me to deconstruct people. Even when it’s worthless in real life, it has an application in the acting world. I didn’t go there with Jan though. I didn’t think I’d ever be finished, there’s so many fucked up things about her. But that whole experience of being misdiagnosed is one of those terrible things that you can actually look back and laugh at.”
She’s similarly easy-going on the topic of Michael Rapaport. The actor, her former fiancé, pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment of her in 1998.
“Okay, I wouldn’t say I can laugh about that yet,” she smiles. “But I’m close. I already see that it’s something that helped shape and define me. I’ve incorporated enough of what I went through into what I am. I wouldn’t trade it. I wouldn’t like to go through it again but I wouldn’t trade.”
Everybody likes Lili Taylor. Men certainly seem to. I can recall reading one interview where a male journalist almost did himself a mischief walking down a street with her. But women in particular love Lili. And it’s not because she can play non-threatening mousy every girls like she did in Dogfight. No, we love Lili because she’s a proper tomboy, the best thing in the whole world to be.
“See, this is why I love Europe,” she shouts. “I can talk about being a tomboy, which I totally am. In the States women don’t talk about stuff like that because it’s sadly taboo. For all the speculation about a presidential showdown with Hillary and Condeleeza, I don’t think America is ready for a woman president. We have very defined roles and president unfortunately isn’t one of them. I don’t see how that can change under the current administration. It’s enough to make you hide a copy of From Reverence To Rape forever. We’re back fighting about Roe versus Wade as it is. There’s pornography everywhere. Nobody even blinks anymore at degrading images of women. It’s so insidious. In my profession, actresses assume they have to do those awful, awful magazine covers to make their name. Well honey, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.”
And I thought she rocked before...