Quotes

I like the level of fame that I have. You get nice tables in restaurants sometimes, but fame isn't something that I find comfortable.

I think my being such a nomad let me into acting. I was always having to create a new image whenever we moved.

"I was on this remote island a thousand miles off the coast of Kenya. The island didn't have electricity, but some people had generators, and I went to someone's house and there was a video of Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) playing. I think it was the only frigging television on the whole island. That was very bizarre".

I'm not a city kind of guy. I'm happiest when I'm tromping through the woods. That's why I don't live in Los Angeles. Being physically away from Hollywood probably loses me a few jobs, but the best ones seek me out.

There was one moment in high school where I thought, "Maybe I'll take an acting class." And I walked in and saw all the quote unquote theatre people and I went, "Oh God," and walked out. But later, when I was 19, I actually took an acting class and I was very much smitten with it.

"Well, when I first got sent the script to The Assignment (1997), I thought, 'Why don't they offer this to Andy Garcia?' And it turned out they did. I said, 'Oh, OK'. I had a little bit of a question of 'How the hell am I gonna be believable?' Or 'Will it be that much of a question in the audience's mind that I'm supposed to be Venezuelan?' So, we went with the brown contacts for Carlos and darkened my skin, worked with a good dialogue coach. And then when I heard Andy Garcia was playing an Irish cop in Sidney Lumet's movie [Night Falls on Manhattan (1996)], I stopped worrying about it. But that's one of the great things about being an actor. We get to play dress up. And that's what this movie was for me. Wigs, beards, mustaches, dialogues. Intrigue. It was a tremendous amount of hard work, but fun work for me".

(On filming Songcatcher (2000) in North Carolina) It was fantastic. I would play my guitar on the porch every night after work. I'd have a couple of glasses of wine, a cigar and sing a few songs. I loved it. I get a yearning in my bones for places I lived and worked, like Ireland, the Amazon jungle and now North Carolina. These places are imprinted on your psyche forever.

(1994 quote on why he believes he's not a bigger star) A lot of it is my fault, because it doesn't interest me. And I break the rules all the time: I should be doing this one, and instead I do The Playboys (1992). I don't care if one's going to be a commercial hit-this I don't like, and this I like. You do have to think career wise sometimes in this business, but I think I think enough about my career. I make a tremendous amount of money, and I'm very well respected. I just don't get the consideration that big stars get as far as scripts go, or as far as input goes.

[on At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)] That was an unbelievably difficult and...challenging experience. I don't regret it. But I don't know if I'd go back into it willingly again. It wasn't the jungle - I loved the jungle. We were three months over schedule, and it was a true Heart of Darkness experience in terms of what was happening on the set every day. And what was happening to the movie. And what was happening to the director. And what was happening to the relations between people. There were many horrors involved with it. Hector [Babenco], many, many times during that shoot, was not a sane person. He was insane. When you're rehearsing a scene from seven o'clock in the morning until one o'clock in the afternoon in the jungle, in the heat, with full emotion, no camera, no viewfinder, just so he can get an idea of how he wants to shoot it, because he was so confused and so tormented - that, over a period of time, is tantamount to abuse. We had a good producer who made it worthwhile to be there, but he wasn't able to put any restrictions on Hector. So Hector could do whatever he wanted and keep us there as long as he wanted. Hector literally lost his mind a few times. I feel for him, in a way; I hope he's sorted out some of the demons that were comin' outta him. He's done some great work. John Lithgow and Kathy [Bates] had their own problems with Hector, but they got along with him more often than I did. The thing about it is, I'm really an easy person to work with. But I love At Play in the Fields of the Lord. Babenco did a good job.

(1994 quote) I would love, more than anything, to do an out-and-out farce with huge physical energy. Just because you're from the minimalist school, it doesn't mean you can't go big. I enjoy humor, and it's something I've gotten very little chance to explore. I don't get offered those parts. And if I don't get offered a part, I don't get a part. Ever.

[on The Lemon Sisters (1989)] It's not a good movie. But it was a fun part. Carol Kane is a friend of mine and she kept begging me to do it. So, I basically did it as a favor to her.

(1994 quote in Movieline Magazine) My thing about looking good is that it should be the character. If I'm playing a character who's concerned about his body-an athlete, say-I'll get in shape. If I'm playing a character who doesn't or wouldn't, I don't. I almost never get in shape for a movie, even though I know it would be a good career move. I hate seeing movies where a poor fuckin' sharecropper in the '30s takes his shirt off and he's fuckin' cut, with a washboard stomach and perfectly chiseled muscles that no farmer would ever have, that you can only get from intensive workouts with a trainer, isolating muscles. It drives me crazy! On the other hand, if you're a leading man and you're good-looking, it's definitely a good career thing to do."

[on Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) I thought Madonna was great. Terrific. Susan [Seidelman] and I had some disagreements, certainly. The thing with Susan was about changing things in the script, and finally we came to an agreement: I would do a scene her way, and she would let me do it my way. She used most of mine. There was a lot of strife on that set, a lot of shenanigans. Most of the cast and crew thought that movie was gonna be a turkey, and when they saw it they were pleasantly surprised. Usually it's the other way around.