Now we know Ray Liotta only seems like he could snap at any moment and kill us all
You never read much in the tabloids about Ray Liotta. The low-profile actor with the high-profile career is best remembered as the likable mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas, but Liotta is who he is – a guy from Jersey who just wants to make the most of his talents. Forget the Hollywood stuff.
But there’s frustration in his voice when he discusses his career. Nothing seems to irritate him more than to be remembered only for his “psycho” roles, such as Melanie Griffith’s ex-husband in Something Wild, or the cop who terrorizes Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe in Unlawful Entry.
Liotta also wants you to remember his performance as the medical student coping with a brain-damaged brother in Dominick and Eugene, as “Shoeless” Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, and as the life-saving heart surgeon in Article 99.
Still, in his next two movies, Liotta is back playing psycho characters – as a serial killer in Turbulence and as a cop who turns to booze and drugs in Copland. We meet at Hugo’s on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, several tables away from where Liotta first got word that he had landed his big-screen debut in Something Wild.
Where were you when you got that call to audition form Something Wild?
I was living in my struggling actor’s box. A couple of guys in acting class told me about this movie, so I called my agent. Jonathan Demme (the director) was down to three guys and didn’t want to see anybody else, but I kept insisting. They finally sent as assistant, which was fine. She could be head of a studio right now, but at the time I didn’t think she had that much pull and I was pissed, man. I was pissed because nothing was happening. Enough already. If I’m going to be turned down, let the director turn me down. When I finally met Jonathan I was ready. I was so f—— angry at the world, and the part called for someone who was kind of edgy. I nailed it.
You mentioned your “struggling” years. What exactly does that mean for an actor?
My struggling years came in the middle of my career. My third day in New York I landed a commercial. Then I spent three years on a soap opera [as popular Joey Perrini on Another World]. I wasn’t struggling in terms of money, but I didn’t go out and buy anything big, either. The biggest thing I bought was this red Fiat. But I’m my father’s son. You know – work hard, save your money. Because of his influence, I was able to sustain myself for another four years on soap money.
But then it was like, all of a sudden I’m 27 or whatever and there’s this whole youth philosophy. I mean, it happened the way it did and I’m glad it did because I have friends to this day who are approaching their 40s and still haven’t really done anything. I always knew it was going to happen, I never had a doubt.
Was it confidence?
Nah, it was because I realized all you’re doing is playing make-believe. As Katherine Hepburn once said, “What’s the big deal? Shirley Temple was doing it at four?” It’s just a matter of catching the break. When it came, I was ready. But the obstacles and everything you have to go through – it sucks.
But you’ve been working steadily. What’s your latest project?
I’m doing a movie called CopLand with Sylvester Stallone, Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel. I play a cop who was Keitel’s right-hand man but something goes down between us, we’re drifting apart, and I’m getting into drink and drugs.
DeNiro and Keitel are intense actors. Do you consider yourself an intense actor?
That’s for somebody else to decide. Let me put it this way, when I first started acting I would watch Mean Street, Taxi Driver. I liked their commitment to what they were doing. But Bob [DeNiro] the other day pulled me aside and showed me pictures of his kids. He’s got this wonderful sensitive side, too, that you might not know right away.
CopLand is coming on the heels of Turbulence. It comes out this Christmas. I’m an escaped serial murderer who’s been on the lam for two years. I get caught and they put me on a 747 with this other convict and four marshals. As they’re transporting us, the one guy escapes. I hijack the 747, the other guy’s in Los Angeles, and I want to crash the plane into him. It’s out there, and it’s in the middle of a severe thunderstorm, so there’s turbulence outside the plane and inside the plane.
Once you said your own personality comes closest to the character you played in Dominick and Eugene. Quote: “I can relate to being nice to somebody.”
I can relate more to being in a relationship with someone than selling and doing drugs, beating someone up. I had one fight in my whole life and that was in 7th grade. I just thought Dominick and Eugene was a sweet movie. And I really liked working with Tom Hulce. I also felt the movie touched the buttons it was supposed to touch. I tend to like movies about relationships. You know, loving someone in your family. But it’s just acting. Really, I’ve loved all the movies I’ve done. I only bring up Dominick and Eugene because most people think I play these bad guys, these edgy guys.
Ok, you’re 41, you’ve got about 16 or so years behind you as an actor. Has your job gotten easier or harder?
My guess is you’re not struggling to pay the mortgage anymore.
That’s an interesting question. It’s not harder because you do it more, but the stress…what you want is to be totally egoless. You want to work toward putting your ego away and just playing make-believe. If you play make-believe it’s easier and there’s nothing to judge. But this business is structured around major successes. To a degree, I’m still caught up in the success thing, because whoever had the biggest opening over the weekend is the guy who’s going to get the most interesting roles.
A perfect example of that, and her deserves it, is [John] Travolta. He probably would have never gotten half the movies he’s getting if not for Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. Now all of a sudden he’s working with the better people.
I would like to get to the level of working with the best people – writers, directors, actors. With the best material. But to get there you need to be in something that’s really successful. I came out of the box really, really good with Something Wild, Dominick and Eugene, Field of Dreams and GoodFellas. Two of those movies were nominated, blah, blah, blah. And then I wanted to grow as an actor, so I did Article 99 to play a heart surgeon. So you put pressure on yourself to show different areas. But then when you show different areas, sometimes the scripts aren’t as good.
So you’ve had to balance financial success with trying to stretch yourself as an actor.
But even if you’re stretching yourself, it doesn’t necessarily mean they give a shit. The only stretch they want to see is their wallet expanding.
But you’re still trying to reach a different level?
No question about that. But I don’t know if you ever reach that level. Let’s just say that Turbulence goes through the roof. And now I have to fight the thing of always playing psycho man. Does success mean an actor who’s in different movies, doing different roles and different types of things? Or does success mean you’re making $10 million a movie but you’re playing the same guy over and over and over again?
And 99 percent of actors, as we mentioned earlier, see success as just getting an acting job.
Sometimes my girlfriend doesn’t understand why I might get a little anxious about things or a little disappointed. You know, to her it’s all relative. Like right now, I’m working with huge stars. But even they have concerns – like how they want to get away from certain types of roles or how someone else is making X-amount of dollars. When I started out, I would work for free. These days, if there was something I really wanted to go after and I didn’t get it, sure I would be disappointed. But life goes on. It’s a matter of who the studio feels is right for the role. I don’t think you’re ever immune from it, but it’s not as if I’m going to blow my mind over it.
So what does success mean to you?
I definitely think that, to a degree, if you’re working in this industry and if you’re making a living at it, you’re successful. As an actor, what you want most is to just go after the acting. The other stuff will come. You keep going after what you like, I don’t think you can set your sights on just making money. That’s not why I got I into this. Too many people go after the money. I figure, the more successful your films are, the better opportunities you’ll have for better roles. The reason I got into this was because I liked acting, not because I wanted to be financially sound.
What about street recognition. Are you comfortable with it?
It really depends on how you feel like carrying yourself. Some days you’re in the mood for it, and other days you wear a hat and glasses, and keep your head down. I’m sure it can be overwhelming. But certain people walk around with an entourage. I walk around by myself.
Most of us haven’t a clue what a successful well-recognized actor goes through on a day-to-day basis. Is it any fun?
What was really incredible was when I was on the soap opera, Another World. Soaps gets millions of viewers a day, and I was the “nicest” guy in the world. Joey Perrini. Sickening sweet, like saccharin. Talk about street recognition. We used to do these shopping mall things where there were thousands and thousands of people. It was amazing. Thousands of girls screaming. There I was, 22 years old.
So these day s it just depends on how you posture in public?
Right now, it doesn’t mean as much to me to measure my day by who recognizes me.
Would you consider yourself a private person?
I don’t have a persona I hide behind. I don’t have the jokes. Some people hide behind certain kinds of things. I’m just who I am and I try to be as honest as I can.
There are a lot of other things I can talk about that might seem intriguing. I mean, I can play your game, too.
Well, then, let me ask you this: What’s the one thing you’ve never been asked in an interview that you think would be an interesting question to ask?
I won’t tell you that. I don’t know what you might find interesting. Let’s say it’s fixing tires. What’s so interesting about fixing a tire? But my father used to have a tire store.
Then I assume you can fix cars.
Not at all. Hated working there. I couldn’t wait until I could get in the car to pick up parts. I just loved that part of it. It was a great way to get away. Otherwise, I’d be working as a cashier and helping people., not exactly what I wanted to do.
In GoodFellas, there are a lot of scenes that stand out. For example, the scene with you and Joe Pesci, the “What’s so f—— funny about me” scene. I heard that was ad-libbed.
Yeah, pretty much. We had a couple of weeks of rehearsal. Joe and I were sitting around bullshitting and he tells this story about some guy he knew. The script supervisor was writing it down. We just ad-libbed it and nailed it down. “So you’re a funny guy” and he takes out his gun and does his thing. Towards the end, we just had a blast.
Are you tired of hearing from people who say GoodFellas was one of their favorite movies?
No, not at all. Because you’re lucky sometimes if you finish your career with one like that. That movie’s just amazing how it hits people. And as the years go along, they like it even more. It’s amazing how many people continue to see it. Some people are just obsessed with it.
How did you prepare for the role of a mobster?
First of all, there’s the book [Wiseguy]. I met with Nicholas Pileggi [the writer] and he’s the one who taped Henry Hill. I had about a month-and-a-half of just hanging out, and he gave me these tapes of Henry that he used for the book. So everywhere I went, I’d sit in the car and listen to these tapes. But the guy was eating potato chips through one of these (a tape recorder). Just crunching. It drove me crazy. That says something about his character right there.
I think one of the reasons so many guys like the movie is because we always thinks, “Gee, what a great lifestyle.” As an actor don’t you have a similar sort of lifestyle?
Well, it’s much better than that because, first of all, you’re not gonna die and you’re not goin’ to jail. The cash in your pocket is nothing compared to the cash out of your pocket for the big bosses. For every thousand you have in the bank, they have more in their pockets because they can’t open an account. And it’s really not that much, compared to what you had to do to get it.
But you get special privileges when you go to restaurants, you get recognized, you get front-row seats at concerts.
I don’t go to concerts much. In the 15 years that I’ve been here, I probably been to a handful of premieres. I would much rather go see a movie and pay my money with the audience. If I’m gonna have a few beers, why not just do it at home where no one’s around, as opposed to having to act like an idiot in front of people. I don’t like that kind of attention. But yeah, there are definitely perks. No question about it.
Have you ever gone to a movie, sat in the back of a theater, and listened to the audience’s reaction to one of your films?
Oh, yeah, definitely. I only do it for a little while. There’s something about watching your own movie with people around…I can’t do it. It’s so ego, watching myself in a movie. I watch just to see how they put it together.
Do you get embarrassed? I mean, if I had to go on stage and dance in front of an audience, it would be awkward for me.
When I first went to college, I was just a [basketball] jock from Jersey. And the first thing I did was play a dancer-waiter in Cabaret. Talk about embarrassment. I had to audition for that, singing and dancing…that was embarrassing. And then to have to go to tap class at 7 o’clock in the morning. I never bought tap shoes; I could never give myself over to it. And I thought: what do I want to do this for?
But when you’re on the set, they know what it’s about. They know what you gotta do. And nine times out of ten they’re in the corner whispering. I don’t think they get emotionally caught up at all.
By the way, how are your basketball skills these days?
I was just playing the other night. Shooting around. I actually haven’t played in a while, but I’d definitely give you a run for your money.
You once said” “Acting isn’t a passion with me.” So what is?”
I’m just pretty regular in terms of the things I like. Besides family and friends, I enjoy my girlfriend, I enjoy my house. These are my passions right now.
And what have you learned about yourself from acting?
I don’t look at acting as some sort of self-discovery. What I have learned is that your imagination does it all. You don’t have to experience everything in order to be able to do it, especially when you do a role. But I didn’t realize that, at first. These days, I learn about myself in terms of my relationships with other people.
