This haunting idea of becoming a celebrity doesn’t settle well with me at all.
Everybody’s motivation comes from the core of who they are.
Then I did Mystic Pizza, just to do something I wasn’t fat in.
It’s pretty simple, pretty obvious: that people’s first impressions of people are really a big mistake.
I’ve never tried to be something I’m not.
All of us are trying to achieve 100 percent in our work. That’s all we struggle to do. We never do, but we never stop trying until the day we die. It’s that struggle to achieve 100 percent, that’s where our performance lies, that’s what the audience gets. They get the struggle.
And then, as the years went on, I just kept moving along, busting into doors and getting roles, until I started to actually believe that what these other people were saying was true.
I think that being a producer is business and being an actor is art.
I took a route of acting, rather than starmaking, so it cost me a lot financially.
I’ve never played a master thief. And I think I am one.
To me the definition of true masculinity – and femininity, too – is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.
The only thing I do worry about is that the more films I do the more visible I am going to become as a personality because of press and because of the sheer quantity of films.
If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.
But the one thing that I did do was establish myself as a good actor.
When I was younger, it was about doing something that made me nervous. Now, it’s for many different reasons. I’ve had the opportunity to have fun. I don’t know why that is, but I like it.
I found my niche as a character actor, and I’ve never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to.
And I have been able to establish this sort of decent reputation as being a decent character actor.
At our best, it’s a good experience but we do 22 episodes a year, so there are some clunkers.
Look, all you can do when you find your niche is go with it.
So I moved to Europe and only came back when directors like Robert Altman would call me after they’d seen my work in Full Metal Jacket.