What is your approach to acting? ^ I don’t have an approach to acting.
The violence you portray in your films is very real. I mean too real. In fact, scary real! Are you well versed in gunplay? ^ I have been to a gun club and I have fired off rounds for kicks, but I don’t know what that has to do with a realistic scene. I’d love to go more deeply into the subject of realism if it didn’t have anything to do with a question involving a gun club.
What’s it like to work with Tarantino? ^ I love Quentin. I love him like a brother. I think he’s at the top of his powers right now. I think that Kill Bill is an astounding achievement in cinema. Let’s face it—Nobody has ever been able to make a picture the way that he does, even though everyone tried to copy him. No one has ever been able to achieve the same thing and if I could just make pictures with Quentin for the rest of my life, that would be okay with me because at least you know when you are working on a picture with him that there is going to be something about it that is going to be damn good. He reached back and pulled me back into his vortex at a time when I was very frustrated with some of the films that I was working on and that was a gift that I will forever be grateful for.
Has a director ever asked you to do something too extreme for you? ^ We’ve asked each other to do things that were off the deep end but at the end of the day, I have to leave it in the hands of my director and we bounce ideas back and forth but at the end of the day, it’s really his choice.
What’s it like hanging on the set with Tarantino? ^
Well, that depends on who you’re working with. I like to stay busy and I like to be creative and I like to think that whatever I am doing will be memorable. So, I guess the best thing about being on a film set is the possibility of greatness always hanging in the air.
What is the worst thing about hanging on a film set? ^ The worst thing about film sets is waiting around. All of the down time, sitting around in a trailer, sitting around in a car, or endlessly pacing back and forth like an animal in a cage and the lonlieness of faraway locations.
When it comes to acting, how do you get to that… dark place? ^ I think the best way to get to that place is to not try too hard and just let it be what it is supposed to be. After all, I’m not the one who wrote any of those scenes that you may be referring to. I am only trying to give credibility to the author. And don’t take it home with you.
Have you thought about directing yourself? ^ I have thought about directing. I have been directing myself for years. I have given a few other actors some advice. If any studio was ever wise enough to let me direct a film, I think I might be able to deliver a very lucrative product.
You’ve appeared in some films that were, well, let’s be honest, were crap. But for some reason, you always seem to come off cool. How do you pull that off? ^ Well, all I can say is that I agree that there are a few pictures that aren’t really worth watching, but I think that people should understand that I have five sons and that I have got to pay the mortgage.
