When I was 17, I was told I had the choice of enlisting in the Navy or going to jail, so I spent the next three years in the Navy.
— Seymour Cassel
If you're an actor, and you're selfish and not strong, it's difficult to maintain a good personal life or a solid career, and I was selfish and had a lot of anger that went way back.
The whole idea of a festival to me is that filmmakers get to interact. You see someone strolling, you get to meet them and tell them you like their work, you admire their story.
My mother worked in the old Minsky's troupe, which toured the country in the golden age of burlesque theatre.
It's all performing; that's what we do in life. We talk, we look, and we hear, and we listen. Your life is a performance.
With independent film, simply because they don't have the money to make a big-budget film, they're forced to make a story that's important to them, that they would like to see on film, a personal story that people can relate to, about people, where you can see the love of the characters.
It doesn't matter how beautifully a film is photographed. The acting tells your story. It's what people relate to. If you don't believe the characters, it doesn't work.
I was a little ham and was a very open kid, probably because I was around adults all the time. That also forced me to grow up fast, and I learned at an early age about how people lie and deceive each other.
'Shadows' wasn't so difficult to get made.
I always go in with the feeling that I'm gonna have a good time in what I'm doing. I entertain myself when I perform. If I do that, then I can see the other performers enjoying my character.
All I ever cared about was actors - toughest job in this business.
I am a performer; that's what I like to do.
Independent film is film that has thought in it. There's no independent thought in studio films. It's collective thought.
I was born in Detroit, then shortly after I was born, I went on the road with my mother, who performed with Minsky's, a variety show that toured around the U.S. doing five shows a day.
I've had people ask me to come and work for them. I went to Vienna and did three scenes in a movie for a guy that I met at a retrospective of Cassavetes films. It's a great way to travel, to meet people, to see different countries and cultures.
As a kid, I remember wearing a checkered suit and appearing on-stage in the routines worked out by the 'baggy pants' comedians.
The people who know my work like my work. And that's great.
I wait for something good or something that will be fun. But they've got to pay me if they want me to work.
Many people came out and said, 'Boy I'd love to make a film that way.' Well, borrow some money, get some people together - you can get people to work for nothing, just treat them right, treat them as human beings, not stars, give them all an equal share, make them feel a part of what they're doing. There's no big secret to it.
