If it helps me in the way that if this movie is successful, I get to make more films, great, and the more films that I make and the more interest that I’m allowed to cover, the better for me and the better, hopefully, for the people who like to watch me.
It makes me feel good that I can now sit there and go, I’ve worked with Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, all the great actors that I’ve worked with… Sir Ben Kingsley.
I’ve been working for many years and I think I’ve managed to work with some of the best people in the business, which has been rewarding and an apprenticeship.
I often feel that my days in New York City, that I was here for five years, didn’t get one job, went on a thousands of auditions and literally did not get a job on a soap, not a movie, not TV, not nothing, although I did do some commercials thank God.
I like doing movies with kids in them, and you’re explaining things. They’re teaching you and you’re teaching them, and the audience can loop through that.
If you go to YouTube and look up ‘grief’ you can find them and it’s just an unbelievable tool for an actor to be able to access, without being unethical. It’s like accessing the deepest, most painful parts of a person.
Filmmaking is a difficult process. There are the logistics of making a film. You have to do your part, and then change the entire thing around to do someone else’s part. A lot of the magic is lost, in between that, and you have to figure out how to get it back.
I think that maybe that’s my weakness, in that I don’t know how to do it, so I just do what I do and try to do it as passionately and as well as I can.
I love the fight game. I like the brutality. I like the mentality. I like the aggressiveness, but I like the technique and skill. I like the stakes. I like the people around in the gym. I like the everyday, working class feel of a boxing gym.
Actors aren’t fighters. They don’t know how to throw a punch. So, there’s a lot of hitting in the face. I’d much rather fight with a stuntman than another actor. I don’t like fighting with other actors because somebody always ends up getting hurt.
