Christopher Walken: Every day's his birthday

What's a Ping-Pong martial-arts romantic wire-fu comedy cast to do without its villain played by Christopher Walken?

Just ask "Balls of Fury" star Dan Fogler and writer-director Ben Garant, who spent much of their Comic-Con panel on Saturday doing Walken impersonations. (The lithe actor is currently promoting "Hairspray" and was apparently unable to attend the Con.) 

Garant told the crowd that Walken pretended it was his birthday three times during production. He'd stop by Ralphs on his way to the set and pick up a birthday cake. Then he would sit alone in the makeup trailer, looking forlorn, until some unsuspecting crew member walked in. And then he'd spring his trap.

"Is it your birthday?!" a crew member would ask.

"Oh, no. It's nothing," Walken would reply. "It's not that big a deal." Inevitably, Garant said, someone fell for it every time. The production ended up have three birthday parties for Walken.

Although he may love birthdays, Walken apparently doesn't know from interwebs or e-mail.

"Yeah, he doesn't know the @ symbol," Garant said. "He looked at it for so long and then said, 'What is that? Is this a letter or a number?' We [said], 'It's like 'at' but one letter shorter.'"

-- Sheigh Crabtree

Photo: Walken in "Balls of Fury" / Rogue Pictures