Look, I play all these tough guys and thugs and strong, complex characters. In real life, I am a cringing, neurotic Jewish mess. Can't I for once play that on stage?
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I play a lot of hard men and gangsters, and I'm not like that at all.
You get all of your neuroses worked out on stage. I haven't actually played very many nice characters, certainly not on stage. It's not a quality that attracts me.
I suppose I'm always trying to break down the wall between my characters and myself. I'm trying to make the film as expressive and personal as I can, even if I can't explain, for example, how important it is for me to be Jewish.
I always find it easier to portray myself as being unlikeable and idiotic; to actually play a character that is likeable and engages the audience is far more difficult. It's a more subtle kind of challenge.
With my physicality and my face, I don't think I could pull off a completely righteous guy. There's something devious about my eyes. I like characters with flaws and to see how they overcome those flaws. I want to play real people, and they're flawed, not perfect.
I think playing somebody who's schizophrenic is such a lesson as an actor. It gets you totally out of your comfort zone, because you can't rely on your technique, your external stuff. You've really gotta look inward, in a way.
You have to just enjoy yourself sometimes, and the audience will, too. Not every role has to be 'The Taming of the Shrew.'
I get cast as a lot of sympathetic characters. I'd like to play someone really unpleasant.
I'm no longer going to play thugs or debauched cops that I can't possibly make complex characters. I'm bigger than that. I owe too much to too many good people at the Goodman, Arena and Playwrights Horizons.
Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.