He’s cut off a cop’s ear in Reservoir Dogs, buried Uma Thurman alive in Kill Bill, and even kissed Susan Sarandon without flinching in Thelma & Louise, but this time Michael Madsen swears things are different with his new film, Vice. “Sure”¦I’ve fired some weapons in my life, yeah,” he tells the Georgia Straight on a film-set phone.

In Vice, Madsen plays Max Walker, a cop who’s haunted by the memory of his dead wife. A drug bust goes awry and Walker’s partners start getting killed off, one by one. With no obvious suspects, Walker looks to his own people for the killer.

“For me, the story is about redemption,” Madsen says. “When I first read it, it seemed like a predictable cop story, but then I figured that it was a bit deeper and darker than that”¦I thought maybe if I could get more involved as a producer”¦we could turn it into a bigger story than just a cop movie.”

Raul Inglis, Vice’s Vancouver-based writer-director, sent the script to Madsen’s manager, hoping for the best. He lucked out when Madsen agreed to jump aboard as a producer and star. One of the perks of doing so, Madsen explains, is that he was able to get a lot more involved in how the film would turn out.

“When you’re talent, you just come in and you do your scenes and you leave, and you have absolutely no say over anything.” But once Madsen got involved on a bigger level, many things changed. “We changed the ending of the script. And I got to get involved in the casting. I had casting approval for certain roles. I brought Daryl Hannah into the movie and I was able to get the director of photography, Andrzej Sekula [Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction].”

Taking hold of the producer reins also meant that Madsen’s wish to become more than just an on-screen tough guy is coming closer to fruition.

“I really don’t want to be 75 years old with a cigarette and a gun,” he laments. “I’ve played a lot of tough guys that aren’t redemptive”¦a lot of tough guys that don’t have a conscience, and I think that it’s an altogether different ball game this time.”

When asked about Quentin Tarantino’s comments from another interview, wherein he said that Madsen’s character in Kill Bill remains an incredibly likable guy despite doing horrible things, Madsen becomes more reflective. He acknowledges that audiences need redemptive qualities in their tough guys.

“But I don’t think redemption is an actable quality,” he says. “I think you either embody it or understand it or you don’t.” Judging by his on-screen history of violent acts, Madsen may have the chops necessary to play a character primed for change.

Audiences can decide when Vice hits theatres in Vancouver on Friday (May 9).