I learned a long time ago: You’re in the entertainment business. You’re not in the reality business. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
You cant act for the editing. You just go in and do the scene the way you think is right.
I love England and the historical aspect of it.
This is my first experience working in a foreign movie, but the mechanics, I think, are pretty much the same all over; you still have to wait in the trailer.
I don’t like to be talked into anything. I don’t want to be cajoled.
I’d love to do a Western. A real Western like John Ford used to do. There’s not too many of them made, so I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do that. They’re awfully hard movies to make.
I’ve tried writing. Two days later I’d go visit it and say, Jesus Christ, who wrote this crap?
There’s a whole catalogue of actors that never went to acting school.
What you do as a policeman might be the right thing to do, but it’s not entertaining. I left that behind me.
You can change a person’s life in an instant; put him in a movie, and you start thinking differently, you want to be in another movie. It’s like an addiction almost.
I wanted to do Buddy Faro as a small budget movie. They said no. So I wanted to do it as a series of recurring TV movies, and they said no. So I agreed to do it as a series.
I think first impressions are important when you pick up a script.
I think all actors are supposed to be character actors.
I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.
I know people who go back and check themselves, but it drives me crazy. Everybody wants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant looking back at them, but that’s just not the case.
I don’t know if I have a technique. I’m just trying to remember the words.
As far as carrying the American banner, you just do what’s right for the kids.
Do whatever you’re directed to do, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up to the director.
I have a home in Arizona. I go a couple months a year, but basically Chicago is my home.
When I was a kid going to the movies, we’d go because Bogart was in the movie, or Cagney, or John Wayne. We didn’t know what the story was about or anything.