My hero when I was 14 was Sonny Liston. No matter what kinds of problems you were having with your parents or at school, whatever, Sonny Liston would go and knock guys out, and that made it all right.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I met Sonny after (Blind Boy) Fuller died, and me and Sonny played in the streets like everybody else.
At 14, I was the most disciplined guy around. I would get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and run five miles, and then go to school. Sometimes I would run behind the school bus, and the kids thought I was just crazy. I knew what I wanted.
When I was 17, I was always hanging out with the older kids, and a lot of times, the kids that graduated would come back and play pranks. I was a huge, huge, huge prankster.
I didn't want to be a hero to kids; I didn't think I had that. I just wanted to be popular.
I was never a juvenile lead or a romantic hero, and I didn't come into my own as an actor until I was 40.
In high school, during marathon phone conversations, cheap pizza dinners and long suburban car rides, I began to fall for boys because of who they actually were, or at least who I thought they might become.
My dad was my hero. And I got my personality from my mother.
I was the little kid growing up. I wasn't picked on because, honestly, I was fast, so I could run away from the bullies.
Growing up, my parents were my heroes, in the way they conducted their lives.
I came out of high school, where my heroes were, like, Michael Jordan and a lot of local rugby players - and on the movie front, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.