I don't think Jack Nicholson has ever called me Stephen. He's like, 'Hey, Dorff. How are ya?'
— Stephen Dorff
I've always played different kinds of roles, and I probably played more vulnerable parts when I was really young.
I want to make a movie where people are, like, 'Whoa.'
I watch a lot of movies.
Being an actor is pretty much like being in the circus.
When I played Candy Darling in 'I Shot Andy Warhol,' that was easy to play that part. They made me into a woman: I'm in heels; I'm waxed. I'm gonna find the femininity and lay on the bed and take the voice of an old movie star.
I have a smaller bottom lip, but in 'Wheeler,' I had a lip over my lip. It's fat, and it helped with my accent.
I moved to L.A. when I was, like, 6 months old. I was born in Georgia 'cause my dad was going to college at the University of Georgia for music. Then we moved to the Valley, and my dad was a songwriter out here.
It was pretty surreal to be auditioning as a kid, and I'd get close to these actors that I really respected. I remember River Phoenix in particular. I met him at an audition hall or something.
Vampires to me have always been very sexy.
Nuclear arms is pretty scary because that could end the world. I'm more interested in that stuff than I am Bill Clinton. I mean, I think Bill Clinton is a good president.
I've mainly been in dramas, so this is one of my first comedy kind of performances in Cecil B. Demented.
I started acting before that when I was about 13 or 14.
I guess what I learned the most was to feel lucky with what I have been able to accomplish and what I have and to feel humble about the people I have been able to work with.
Basically, at some point, one day maybe you can expect to hear some of my music. I haven't really done that yet because my younger brother is a musician and really talented and I want him to come out with his music first.
I've always found, when I was younger, that the older guys - the guys who weren't of my generation but were 20, 30 years older than me - were the cool guys.
I've just had some things to deal with, like family stuff, you know, lost my mom. Which is the most difficult stuff I've gone through. But it's just normal human stuff.
My mom always wanted me to do movies where I played, whether I had flaws or not, guys that had a good heart.
I think that when I was younger and had my first round of big success and was plastered on magazine covers in the early and mid-'90s, I was kind of outspoken and had kind of a pretty aggressive attitude in my life.
I pretty much lived movie to movie in my younger years because I loved spending money, and I didn't really have a concept of 'assets,' but as I got a little older, I bought art.
In my early 20s, I was buying Kristofferson records. I loved his acting; then I found out all the songs he wrote. I loved the Highwaymen. I collected all that stuff.
I like being creative.
I remember I once had a meeting with Sydney Pollack and the playwright Tom Stoppard, and they thought I was English. I said, 'I'm just from the Valley!' Just from the San Fernando Valley!
You have to feel the bad to be able to feel the good.
They're trying to beat out this movie, the Ring, which is a similar idea. Our movie is about a website you visit and die in three days. Their movie is about a videotape you watch - and die in three days.
It used to be you did TV or you did film. Now it's like a media blitz.
I wouldn't want to do a whole movie with effects.
I play guitar and I love the Beatles and melodic music.
I don't want to just be in the normal kind of teen movie.
Living at the beach, it's hard to get out of the sun.
I've never really dated actresses except when I was really young.
I find that dialogue is bad in most scripts. I just think there are very few writers that can capture the natural way people talk.
I'm used to having big movie cameras in my face; I pretend that they're not there.
When I was 17, I was going to go to college because I couldn't get a movie.
I used to play around and sing Randy Travis for my dad. I'd always be able to just mimic things.
In a movie script, you know what the moments are that you really have to hit it out of the park.
My first manager was this lady named Booh Schut. She actually worked with me on my auditions.
Yes, I definitely plan to direct at some point.
That's the danger of having too much success. You lose that magic, that feeling of not being in control, which I feel now, it's too controlled.
I've read some scripts, but I don't read as many books as I should.
I think acting is only one part of the piece of the movie. I'ts an important piece, but I'd like to be involved in all the other aspects of making movies.
I liked getting the best villain award. I thought that was funny.
But, I didn't get my first break until I was 17.
