Quotes

[on Sam Peckinpah] There are three or four or five directors who are sheer genius in what they do, and Sam is certainly one of those. But he also relies a great deal on the people around him. And as much as I think Sam's a genius, I also think he's a fucking idiot. But then, it takes a genius to fuck up in the idiotic ways he does. Everybody hates Sam; everybody loves Sam. Sam intentionally makes everybody on the set uncertain in order to get what he wants. He'll figure which way you're headed and then keep at you until he's got you thinking 180 degrees from where you were. Then, just when you think you've got it licked, he'll start in on you and force you another 180 degrees so you're back where you started only you can't recognize it. He wants you off balance because that's how he sees the world--nothing is certain.

[on Martin Scorsese] Probably he . . . is one of maybe three directors I've worked with who are really great, really great. He's a superb director and he works kind of strangely.

[on why he's successful at playing heavies] Different parts call for different heavies. I have a certain presence. I play against that presence a lot of times. One school of heavy that kind of came in vogue, I use it, Warren Oates used it for a while, Jack Elam did with his own twist, and that's of a heavy that is not crazy or deranged--although we play those, of course--but rather someone who is a heavy because he enjoys being a heavy. I've done 25, 30, 50 different types of heavies, a shade here, a shade there . . . it's really hard to say what they're looking for when they pick me. A lot of times your heavy is not that well presented in the script. Most times he's too one-sided. So we look for things to bring to being a heavy: a certain softness; a vulnerability that makes him human; a quiet moment when he's a screamer most of the time; a look; the way he dresses; the way he walks into a room. There are many things that contribute to why a casting director will choose me over someone else . . . or someone else over me.