The London Film Festival always brings a few stars to town, and when they’re not cluttering up Leicester Square or giving room service the runaround at The Dorchester, some of them even find time to do something constructive.
Take Steve Buscemi. He’s here to big up Interview, an offbeat dramatic duet in which he takes the triple role of co-writer, director and – in front of the camera - as a sniffy political journalist forced to write a “fluff piece” on America’s hottest new screen star, played by our very own Sienna Miller.
It’s a remake of a 2003 film by Theo van Gogh, the promising Dutch filmmaker whose career was tragically cut short by a murderous religious zealot a year after the movie’s release.
Approached by the original producers, Buscemi agreed to direct the English-language adaptation, the first of van Gogh’s three features to be remade in his memory (fellow actor-director Stanley Tucci’ Blind Date will be the second).
An uneven but watchable dramedy about the shattering of preconceptions, it marks Buscemi’s fourth feature as director after Trees Lounge, Animal Factory and Lonesome Jim - not to mention his superb small-screen work on The Sopranos.
The LFF duly signed up the versatile ex-fireman (Buscemi was one of the first volunteers on scene at Ground Zero on September 12, 2001) to give a ‘masterclass’ at the National Film Theatre.
Looking much younger than he does on screen, Buscemi came across as a laid-back, honest and thoroughly decent bloke in the face of some mystifying and occasionally stupid questions from interviewer Briony Hanson.
For example, a clip from prison drama Animal Factory prompted the query: “Those aerial shots… did they come from the book?” Because, of course, books are full of aerial shots.
Incredulous but ever the gent, Buscemi was thankfully able to fashion sensible responses to Ms Hanson’s blithering. Sadly, insight and enlightenment were also in short supply when questions were opened up to the floor.
The only masterclass here was one of inanity from interviewer and audience. Buscemi is clearly no raconteur, but he tossed out enough snippets of interest to make the hour worthwhile.
He admits to having a temper though tries his best to keep it in check whenever he’s directing. Of Interview, he says that scenes were shot with several cameras to allow more dynamic editing and thus prevent the two-handed drama from appearing stagey.
Directing a long-running TV show like The Sopranos would is not as much of a breeze as you might think. Actors still need to be told what to do and the week-per-episode shooting schedules leave little time for directorial flourishes.
Starting his stage career as a stand-up comedian, he felt he lacked the originality that separates the good from the great. But after taking up acting, he soon found the instinctive approach more productive than all that ‘Method’ malarkey.
As an actor, he chooses an eclectic array of roles to keep the job fun. But having done five movies with the Coen brothers, he’s anything but unconventional.
Surprisingly – given that it’s the role most people remember him for - not once did anyone mention the name Mr Pink.
Of course, taking parts in big-budget nonsense like Con Air and Armageddon allows him to get his personal projects off the ground. Performance-wise, his work in the 1986 AIDS drama Parting Glances is still his personal favourite.
Likeable and unassuming, Steve Buscemi is what you’d call a stand-up guy. And yeah, he is kinda funny looking…
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