Inside: Actors Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner discuss their careers at Woodstock Film Festival panel
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. >> Film and television stars Steve Buscemi and William Fichtner shared stories of their careers, advice for aspiring actors and filmmakers and a few laughs with the audience during Sunday’s Actors Dialogue at the Kleinert/James Center.
Buscemi and Fichtner discussed their careers that spanned television, roles in Hollywood motion pictures and work in independent films like “Dreaming of a Vetter World” — executive produced by Buscemi and screened at the festival.
Buscemi reflected on working with famed director Quentin Tarantino in the 1992 heist film “Reservoir Dogs.”
“He helped me get to the next level. He had so much enthusiasm, so committed to what he was doing,” Buscemi said. “It was a game- changer for me.”
Fichtner talked about his work, which spanned bigbudget Hollywood blockbusters like “Armeggedon” to independent films with tiny budgets.
“Craft services at ‘Armageddon’ had a bigger budget than some of the films I’ve been in,” Fichtner said.
He said his role as Adam Janikowski in the CBS sitcom “Mom” came about from a connection with famed-sitcom creator Chuck Lorre, who brought him on board for a few episodes of the 1990s comedy “Grace Under Fire.”
He said he was called in for four episodes in the third season of “Mom” and eventually that evolved into a full-time role.
Buscemi discussed the challenges of his directing on TV, which include credits on the HBO mob drama “The Sopranos” and “Homicide: Life On the Street.”
He said it was tough coming into “Homicide” in the seventh season and “The Sopranos” in the third season.
“It helps when the script is written well,” Buscemi said.
He said he particularly enjoyed directing episodes on the IFC channel show “Portlandia”
“It almost didn’t feel like I was directing,” Buscemi said. “It was just a lot of fun.”
He noted several times he’s had doubts when asked to take on a role, but he almost always ends up taking the part and loving it.
Most recently that happened when he was asked to portray Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the 2017 film “Death of Stalin,” which chronicled the struggle for power in the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.
Buscemi said he had misgivings at first because he felt he just didn’t look the part despite being reassured by the production team he’d be a good fit. He said as he dug deeper into the role, forgot about Khruschev as a historical figure and thought more of him as a person.
“This is a story of a guy fighting for his life,” Buscemi said. “This guy was figuring out out how to keep his family alive,”
Fichtner, meanwhile, recalled getting into acting quite by chance.
Studying criminal justice at SUNY Brockport, he said he was told by his academic advisor he needed to take a fine arts class.
“I said ‘what’s that?’” Fichtner said.
After passing on an intro to acting class in a 400-person lecture hall because he saw it as nothing more than prime napping opportunity, he settled on an improv class.
But Fichtner fell in love, and he took as many acting electives as possible.
And knew where his heart was and it wasn’t with the state police.