Bruce Willis Taking Low-Key Approach to Love

N E W Y O R K, Oct. 15, 2001 -- Bruce Willis is Hollywood's $20 million man and the paparazzi and gossip columnists are waiting to see what he does — and whom he will date — next.

Since the end of his high-profile marriage to actress Demi Moore, it's been reported that Willis has taken on the dating scene with vigor. He seems to take the attention in stride, but Willis says that he has taken a low-key approach to finding the right woman.

He spoke about his love life in an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America. Here is an unedited transcript:

BRUCE WILLIS: Obviously, I'm not going to be able to list all of my girlfriends...

DIANE SAWYER: Uh-huh.

BRUCE WILLIS: Because, you know, it's a time consideration.

DIANE SAWYER: You can do it alphabetically. You can do it in order of preference.

BRUCE WILLIS: No, I'm just — here — I was thinking about this last night because I knew you would try to work this in to the show somehow. I think I'm just doing what everybody else on earth is doing, and that is trying to find someone that they can spend some time with.

DIANE SAWYER: And the more you look, the more convinced you are...

BRUCE WILLIS: Well, no, no. It's not — it's the opposite of that, and you know, you fellows at home, this is one of the truths of life. You can't look. You can't — it's that zen thing. You have to, you have to back off of it. If you push too hard, you're not going to get it.

DIANE SAWYER: We first met him as the wisecracking TV private eye in Moonlighting . It wasn't until the Die Hard movies that Willis made the leap from actor to icon. Known as an action star, Willis has recently turned to dramas. The most noteworthy, his spooky intense turn in The Sixth Sense, in 1999. But in his heart? Romance...he says it's the real foundation of his new cops and robbers film, Bandits.

[Clip from Bandits]

BRUCE WILLIS: There is a very modern romance at the heart of this film, I think, and there's different values of love that go along with that as well — the obvious one between myself and Cate Blanchett, and Billy Bob (Thornton) and Cate Blanchett. But, you know, Billy Bob and I have a kind of male love for each other, you know what I mean? Not in a — not in a, you know, "prison" way. Is that politically correct? Can you say that?

DIANE SAWYER: I think you...

BRUCE WILLIS: You guys know what I mean. But we do love each other, and we do and there is a kind of need for each other.

DIANE SAWYER: And in real life, they understand each other in the way that only movie stars do...how great it is at the top, but also how vulnerable it is.

BRUCE WILLIS: It's different for me anyway because, you know, I got that "Jackpot" stamped on my forehead. So, and it's always difficult to know why someone wants to hang around with you.

DIANE SAWYER: You really wonder if somebody's with you for the money, for the glitter, the glamour? You really wonder?

BRUCE WILLIS: Well, for the glitter and the glamour, yeah. I think that you cannot underestimate the allure of the cult of fame. Yeah. Here's a point. Yeah, I would like to be judged or, or chosen because of who I am as a human being not because of what I do for a living. In the last 20 years of relationships, I would meet someone and mistake infatuation for love and just hang on real tight and jump off the cliff with our eyes closed and pray that we don't crash onto the rocks that are always there.

So I'm trying a different way now. I've taken a year off from relationships and kind of spent some time with myself and figured out what's going on for me.