I think distribution has become a lot harder. With the whole explosion of digital video, there's just a lot more people making films. Distributors have a lot more choice. I do think there's an audience out there for small films. It's obvious to me what the studios do: they've co-opted independent film. They all have their independent arm. They can afford to crush the competition.
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.
We both [with Jo Andres] think that it is really important to our culture that we support all kinds of music, all kinds of theatre and all kinds of art because you never know what moves people. We've always believed that there should be a strong voice outside the commercial world. Certainly, the commercial world has a huge place in our culture and we also support that - but, we also want to support the stuff that lives outside of that.
I don't think I'm that much different from any other working actor that's trying to make a living.
I was going to buy a van and move to LA so I could secretly pursue acting without any of my friends knowing.
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.
Usually, I only get to work a few weeks on a movie, or I often don't make it to the end of the movie because I'm disposed of.
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.
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.
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.
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters.
I didn't think I'd ever be able to do movies. That was for serious actors.
I feel my life has more meaning because I am responsible for another life, although I don't have control over what Lucian - my son - is going to do. He's definitely going to carve his own way.
Oftentimes you'll see stuff that makes it into the mainstream that has been influenced by things that are clearly not from the mainstream.
I don't think about the characters I choose to play, analytically or consciously.
It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started acting.
It's always fun to get to do independent film because I believe that that's the life blood of film. It's about writers and directors who truly have their own vision, and that's hard.
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.
I like character-driven stuff. It doesn't matter, the size of the part.
I'm terrible at story and structure, but I'm not so bad at writing dialogue.
Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.
I just like playing interesting, complex, complicated characters. I like films that also have an element of humor.
The director I had most involvement with was Alex Rockwell. He gave me a lot of responsibility as an actor.
I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it. Actually, when I did theater, I used to have a partner, and that was the way we used to write a lot of our sketches, through improvisation. So it's something I feel comfortable with.
