June 23, 1998

Read the rest of the Q&A

The final day of the 1998 Florida Film Festival gave us an enchanting morning with veteran character actors Steve Buscemi (seen next in the upcoming comet flick, Armageddon, and Seymour Cassel, a regular of the films of John Cassavettes. Both exuded much charm and numerous great stories and opinions from their past and present workings, all of which thrilled the audience for about an hour's worth of Q&A. The Q&A was preceded by a showing of Alexandre Rockwell's influential 1992 indie release, "In The Soup", which stars both Buscemi and Cassel. The movie is about a young screenwriter, Adolfo Rollo (Buscemi), who gains a benefactor, Joe (Cassel), a big time criminal, who wants to produce his film.

The show was said to be sold out, and word had it that it was probable that I might not get a seat. But I guess that the early (if you consider 10:45 a.m. early) start and the late showing of Cannibal! The Musical from the night before proved too much for event die-hards (though many people seemed to sneak in just in time for the QUESTION&A). I have to thank all of the people who could make the start time, the Festival planners for scheduling the event at that time of the morning, and Trey Parker, for making a movie that was just long enough to keep people asleep for a little while longer. Because without this factors, I would have missed this wonderful morning. So, wholeheartedly, I say: Thank you!

Below is an abridged transcript of the QUESTION&A. I hope that all who read it will be as charmed by Buscemi and Cassel as I was. Note: The questions have been rewritten for clarity's sake.

[Seymour Cassel has gone back to the hotel to change his clothes, leaving Steve Buscemi to start the QUESTION&A by himself.]

QUESTION: I heard that "In The Soup" [which is in black and white] was shot in color?

STEVE BUSCEMI: Yeah, it was shot on color stock and printed in black and white. Two days before we were about to film, the original financer pulled the money out, so Alex Rockwell had to start over. He got European and Japanese money, but one of the conditions was that he had to deliver a video version in color. So Alex got it somehow written into the contract that it would never be showed in theaters in color. So all the film prints are in black and white, but there is a color version on video. But I like the black and white.

QUESTION: Was "In the Soup" scripted or improvised?

STEVE BUSCEMI: It was scripted, but Alex gave us a lot of freedom to come up with stuff. Like the scene where we're dancing, where I'm trying to learn the cha cha. That scene in the script was like two or three lines, and Alex wouldn't let me listen to the record before we rehearsed it. He said, "I really want you to try to learn this dance." So that's what I did. I mean, Seymour tried to say one of his lines half way through the scene, and I told him to shut up, because I was really trying to learn this dance. And I realized afterwards, "Oh my god, I just told Seymour to shut up." But he got his lines in. The scene works. So, throughout the film, we were improvising, we were using the script, and that's the way we shot it.

QUESTION: Have you ever made a film that was more fun? It looked like you were having a lot of fun in "In The Soup"?

STEVE BUSCEMI: That was a lot of fun. It was hard work, too. We shot like seventeen or eighteen hour days. Seymour made it a lot of fun.

QUESTION: Have you ever worked with Seymour before? It seemed like you guys had great chemistry.

STEVE BUSCEMI: No, that was the first time I had worked with him. I knew of his work from the Cassavettes films, but I hadn't worked with him before. And we got along. I didn't know what to expect. I mean, during the rehearsals, I thought there would have been more improving, and Seymour was going pretty much going by the script, and I'd thought he'd be a lot looser, but he was actually saving that for the filming, and all those kisses... I mean, that wasn't scripted.

QUESTION: There's an internet site that has you as a head of a church. Does that freak you out?

STEVE BUSCEMI: [laughs uneasily] Do we have security here? [laughs] A church? I don't go on the computer. Yeah, it does freak me out.

QUESTION: How about getting killed in all of the Coen brothers' movies?

STEVE BUSCEMI: You know, if you're going to die for somebody, it may as well be the Coens. In their last film, in The Big Lebowski, I was grateful that I just had a heart attack. In Fargo, they not only killed me, but they beat me up and shot me in the face and had an axe.... I remember when we were shooting the scene where I get the axe in the shoulder. We did about thirteen takes. I was padded, and it was a breakaway axe, and they said, "Is this okay"? And I said, "Yeah, I could it all day." And Joel [Coen] said, "Can he hit you in the head"? [...] But that's how I made my living. I die a lot.

QUESTION: There are a lot of similar actors from "Trees Lounge" [Buscemi's acclaimed directorial debut] in "In The Soup". Was this where you met many of them.

STEVE BUSCEMI: Oh, yeah. Elizabeth Bracco, who plays my ex-girlfriend in Trees Lounge. I met Debbi Mazar on this film. Carol Kane. Yeah, I mean, most of the people I worked with on this film I was either friends with before or became friends with afterward. I like working with friends.

QUESTION:How do you pick such quality work?

STEVE BUSCEMI: I've just been lucky. I used to do a lot of theater in Manhattan, with a partner of mine Mark Boone Jr., who was also in "Trees Lounge," and people like Jim Jarmusch [who did "Down By Law"] and Tom DeCillio, who did "Living In Oblivion," and Bill Sherwood, who did "Parting Glances... They all saw me in the theater and they cast me in their films. And that led to other films. So it's not like I've chosen these roles. I feel lucky that they wanted me to be in their films.

Eyal Goldshmid I am a fiction writer supporting myself as a government clerk for the US army. Until I can fully live off writing, I plan to milk all the luxury I can from the American taxpayer. Other Articles I've Written