Dennis Farina

I think first impressions are important when you pick up a script.

I’d love to do a Western. A real Western like John Ford used to do. There’s not too many of them made, so I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do that. They’re awfully hard movies to make.

This is my first experience working in a foreign movie, but the mechanics, I think, are pretty much the same all over; you still have to wait in the trailer.

I learned a long time ago: You’re in the entertainment business. You’re not in the reality business. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

I read the script and try not to bring anything personal into it. I make notes, talk to the director and we decide what kinds of shades should be in the character.

I’ve tried writing. Two days later I’d go visit it and say, Jesus Christ, who wrote this crap?

You can’t act for the editing. You just go in and do the scene the way you think is right.

I know people who go back and check themselves, but it drives me crazy. Everybody wants to look in the mirror and see Cary Grant looking back at them, but that’s just not the case.

I have a home in Arizona. I go a couple months a year, but basically Chicago is my home.

What you do as a policeman might be the right thing to do, but it’s not entertaining. I left that behind me.

The cast was huge, but I never saw anybody.

Do whatever you’re directed to do, and leave the rest of that technical stuff up to the director.

I wanted to do Buddy Faro as a small budget movie. They said no. So I wanted to do it as a series of recurring TV movies, and they said no. So I agreed to do it as a series.

Vince or Brad or Benicio would say, Maybe we should try this, and Guy was open to changes.

I don’t know if I have a technique. I’m just trying to remember the words.

As far as carrying the American banner, you just do what’s right for the kids.

This generation of filmmakers is very good. They’re seasoned, for some reason.

I think all actors are supposed to be character actors.

There’s a whole catalogue of actors that never went to acting school.

When I was a kid going to the movies, we’d go because Bogart was in the movie, or Cagney, or John Wayne. We didn’t know what the story was about or anything.

Usually you’re in movies with a lot of dissolves and things, but this was kind of quick, more jarring than usual. I thought it would be fun to be in a movie that’s unconventional. Then I met Guy and I liked him. I think he’s a good man.

When they released Sidewalks of New York, there were some shots with the towers they were going to take out, and Ed told them no. I don’t think they can deny the towers were a part of New York.

I love England and the historical aspect of it.

You can change a person’s life in an instant; put him in a movie, and you start thinking differently, you want to be in another movie. It’s like an addiction almost.

The British have slang words, as we do, but it was fun.

I don’t like to be talked into anything. I don’t want to be cajoled.