I've never won an award for anything, and I think it's weird. I mean, that's really cool but it's strange to think you could get an award for acting. I always thought that was strange.
Bobby Cannavale
I did so many acting jobs for nothing. I was in a play that opened on Christmas Eve above a police precinct on 54th Street. Three people showed up. One of them was an agent. It was my first agent.
I don't think I'm on the studio president's list: 'The movie's going to star Cannavale.' That's not happening.
My dad worked at a mechanical factory for 35 years. I grew up in Union City, NJ. My mother is a social worker. My sister runs a 7-Eleven, and my brother is a detox counselor. They had no predilection for the arts. But from a very young age, I really, really loved theater.
A character should always have a secret. I feel like we all do.
When I saw John Turturro in 'Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,' I realized that was the kind of actor I wanted to be.
I like that message for my own children that you don't have to go with the flow, go with the crowd. That you can be your own person. You can be an individual, and that's valid, and that's important.
I was an altar boy in an incredible monastery that was attached to a rectory. The theater of the church is the most incredible theater, and in this church, it was beyond. It was this huge monastery. It was landmarked. It's a beautiful building, and I kind of had the run of it.
I'm an idealist.
I don't go see big, silly movies. I like small things about regular folks, you know?
I never thought I would get married and have kids. I thought I was going to be a gypsy actor, traveling all over the world playing the great roles. I ended up having a kid very young, and it put things in perspective.
I just want different parts; I wanna be that guy who people mention and they don't know who you're talking about until you say a few movies they've been in and then people are amazed that it's the same person.
I'm getting a lot of uninteresting romantic lead guys that look good and fall in love sort of garbage.
I seem to be able to get along with anybody when I work because I really enjoy being there.
Growing up, I wasn't an athlete or anything like that. The only place I felt like I belonged was in the theater.
I always wanted to have a career that would keep me at home in New York so I can work in the theater all the time and be involved in the creative process from the ground up.
I'm not very good in a classroom sort of setting. I never was. I was kind of a clown in high school - got suspended a lot.
I like flawed characters very much. A lot of times I get asked to do parts that are kind of small but key - three-scene roles that are three kick-ass scenes. Growing up, watching as many movies as I did, I was always into character actors like that.
I always wanted to make a living as an actor living in New York. A New York actor. What's better than that?
The big business, Hollywood? I don't really work in that business. I peripherally work in it, but I'm not involved in it the way some people are.
Most people think good enough is good enough.
The biggest part of my life is my son.
I've always felt like I'm on the outside. I think certain people judge you right away, and I've always been acutely sensitive to that. I'm fighting, whether it's accurate or not, a perception that I get of people thinking I'm dumb.
I don't come from an intellectual family.
I grew up with a bunch of factory workers.
I was a class clown; the nuns didn't like that.
If you're an actor from New York, and you're Italian-American, you grow up hoping Marty Scorsese knows your name at some point before you die.
I love being a dad. I'd do it full-time if I didn't have to make a living.
I wake up sometimes, and I have this limp, and I'm, like, What if someone chases me, and it's on a bad-knee day? I need to be able to get away.
Nobody's ever going to hire me to choreograph fights.
I didn't go to college.
I can't do a Bloody Mary. But I like the idea of them. It's got fresh vegetables in it.
The older I get, the more interested in good meals I am.
I love taking pictures of food.
I was, like, 28 or 29 when I finally was on camera for the first time.
Some actors want to keep riding the horse that made them famous, but it's not interesting to me. I like to turn an archetype on its head.
