The first movie I had a featured role in was Parting Glances.
Steve Buscemi
The trend now is to shoot in Canada because it's cheaper, and they don't care what the location is.
I usually get freaked out if I'm in a situation where a lot of people recognise me at once.
When I was in pre-production for Trees Lounge, I was hearing the cinematographer talking with the production designer about colours and this and that, and feeling like I was losing control.
My favorite review described me as the cinematic equivalent of junk mail. I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a dig.
It doesn't matter so much where the material comes from, as long as it's good.
Trees Lounge is based on my own life. Both my parents like the movie. My father, of course, thinks it's a masterpiece.
When I moved to the East Village in the late seventies, I wanted to be a street performer, so I practiced daily. I never did work up the skills or the courage to perform on the street, though.
Communication is the key, and it's one thing I had to learn-to talk to the actors. I was so involved with the visual and technical aspects that I would forget about the actors.
I've always been interested in character-driven pieces, and my approach to directing is through acting.
It's great working with Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. Those guys are really funny.
I don't think about the characters I choose to play, analytically or consciously.
Character actors just pile up the credits because you work on a movie for, like, a few days. It's not like I'm the lead in everything I do - far from it. I'm not spending three or four months on a picture; I'm spending three or four weeks. Sometimes three or four days.
Bob Altman had this relaxed but serious attitude. Everybody loved him. I wanted him to adopt me.
In the beginning, it wasn't even a question of deciding I'm going to do independent film and not commercial films - I wasn't being offered any commercial films, and there wasn't an independent scene.
I'm not so in a rush to direct just anything because I'm lucky that I can make a living so far as an actor and not have to worry about that as a director. And so I can be a little more choosy in things I direct.
The thrill of performing - that's something that hasn't changed for me. That simultaneous joy of creating something and sharing it with an audience - it's the same now as it was then, when it was just my cousins' birthday party.
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
What was frustrating about Armageddon was the time I spent not doing anything. It was a big special effects film, and I wasn't crazy about pretending I was in outer space. It feels ridiculous.
There's a certain type of character that you can't help but come in contact with growing up and living in Brooklyn and Long Island. A certain mixture of moxie, heart, and a wise guy sense of humor.
By nature, I think I am a pretty private person, and that is what is hard even doing interviews for films that I really love doing, because in some ways, it diminishes the experience that I had.
I never made a daring rescue, which is the story people want to hear. I did go to my share of fires.
I don't tend to think of these characters as losers. I like the struggles that people have, people who are feeling like they don't fit into society, because I still sort of feel that way.
Shooting in sequence, I think it intensifies everybody's relationship, the crew, the actors. You have to be very focused, and shooting at night is a challenge because you get tired. I think it requires a special kind of concentration, but it's also exhilarating.
I always find that it's when a script is not detailed, then I have to do more work as an actor.
It doesn't matter to me what the genre is.
My dad had a temper. I have a temper. Most people I know have a temper. And I think it comes out mostly with your family. I don't think it's unique to the Buscemis, but it's something I've been able to tap into when I play certain roles.
I think it's important to create an atmosphere where actors feel like they can try things out. It doesn't mean that I'll take every suggestion, but I want there to be some room for actors to grow.
I talked with Quentin about where the character came from, and he told me Kansas City. I don't know how somebody talks from Kansas City, so I made him from New York.
When I was doing stand-up, I was about twenty, and I really think that that's a little too young. I didn't have a whole lot of life experience to draw on.
Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.
I'm terrible at story and structure, but I'm not so bad at writing dialogue.
Relationships are interesting to me. Not just between men and women, but fathers and sons, brothers and sisters and friends.
I did stand-up. I loved George Carlin and Steve Martin.
My greatest hope was to get discovered as a comedian and get on a sitcom.
I didn't really like the aloneness of doing stand-up.
My real training as an actor was when I started doing theatre.
The director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell. He gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.
It doesn't matter what part I play, I try and commit myself 100 percent.
Directing television is really hard - it's so fast. You shoot an hour show in seven days.
All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film.
It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started acting.
I was going to buy a van and move to LA so I could secretly pursue acting without any of my friends knowing.
I didn't think I'd ever be able to do movies. That was for serious actors.
I think all comics borrow from each other. Only a few have an original voice, and I wasn't one of them. In the end, I couldn't figure out who to steal from, so I stopped doing it.
Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters.
I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.
With Animal Factory you'd think that because it's mostly interiors, you could shoot it anywhere. So we shot this in Philadelphia, and we had the cooperation of the prison system.
I could never have imagined the films I've done and the people I've worked with when I was starting out; I certainly did not have a career path.
I was really young, just playing with puppets a lot and doing all the voices and acting it out - normal kid stuff. But then I'd hear my mother talking about it to her relatives, marveling at it as if it was something unique. And it made me realize, 'Oh, maybe I do have a talent for something.'
