Harvey Keitel on ‘Lansky,’ Quentin Tarantino, and Why He Turned Down Ridley Scott's Offer to Direct
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ต.ค. 2024
- With writer-director Eytan Rockaway’s Lansky now playing select theaters and available On Demand, I recently spoke with Harvey Keitel about playing one of the legendary figures of 20th century organized crime in America, Meyer Lansky. During the wide-ranging interview, Keitel talked about why he wanted to play this role, why Lansky made it to old age, what is it about Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano that people keep telling stories their story, and more. In addition, we also talked about what it was like studying under acting teachers Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg early in his career, why he turned down Ridley Scott’s offer to let him direct, if it ever gets old when people want to talk to him about Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, and why he loves Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
Lansky is about a down-on-his-luck writer (Sam Worthington) that gets the opportunity of a lifetime when Meyer Lansky (Keitel) agrees to tell him his life story. As his story unfolds, the films goes back in time to tell the story about how Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Charlie Luciano, and Lansky rose in the ranks in the National Crime Syndicate and gained power. The film alslo stars John Magaro, AnnaSophia Robb, Minka Kelly, David James Elliot, David Cade, and Danny A. Abeckaser.
Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.
Harvey Keitel:
When did he feel like he made it as an actor and wouldn’t have to do a side job to pay rent?
What was it like studying under Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg?
What is it about Bugsy, Meyer Lansky and Charlie Luciano that people keep telling stories about them?
What was it about Lansky that said I want to do this?
Why was Lansky able to die of old age when most gangsters don’t make it?
Does it ever get old when people come up to him wanting to talk about Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction?
Why he loves Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
Did he ever think about directing?
How Ridley Scott offered him a directing job and explains why he didn’t take him up on the offer.
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I hope Tarantino cast's him even in a minor role for his last film
One of my favorite actors
He’s awesome, seems like a really nice guy.
Keitel mentioned “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”
It’s such a unique movie, and his character was memorable.
He starts off as a seemingly nice fellow and turns out to be genuinely scary and threatening.
It wasn’t a major role, but I think the interviewer should have asked him about it.
Bad lieutenant and taxi driver were the two first movies i watched with Harvey. He's one of the greatest actors, resouvoir dogs and pulp fiction were amazing too. Must watch more of his work really he's great
Harvey is one of my favorite actors.
This was much better than that earlier interview you did with Keitel many years ago, where you were asking him to play some kind of "game" or his favorite color or something like that - in the years since then, Collider in general has become far better at doing these interviews - you're much better now at focusing on what your interviewees actually care about, and it makes the exchanges much richer
Glad to see you ask more about Keitel's background, especially the question about Strasberg/ Adler - as you could see, this is something he'd have been happy to discuss for hours - and that might have been an even more interesting interview, just talking about acting with this legend (indeed, it might be nice sometimes to just abandon your pre-written list of questions and go with the flow if the conversation warrants it)
As for Adler/Strasberg - the whole point about discussing them as a duo is their antagonism and the famous debate it generated in American acting (about drawing on one's own memories and emotions), and where someone like Keitel would see himself in relation to that debate - the question should have been framed in those terms to begin with (someone like Perri, with her acting background, might have been able to take this question further)
Still, it was good to raise the subject - I'm sure a high profile outlet like Collider could follow up with him to do some kind of special extended interview on this topic (notice how he immediately wanted to expand the parameters of that subject and bring in more names) - I imagine such an exchange would attract a lot of interest from industry professionals curious what he has to say
Overall, you did a nice job of delving into Keitel's background, and giving him a chance to explore some of his thoughts on Lansky - it's clear he enjoyed this exchange
I haven’t seen HK in years! He’s looking good. Didn’t know he was still making movies/shows. Thought he was retired. Still remember his schlong from The Piano 😆 that was a great movie by the way.
Harvey was in The Irishman in the last few years, so not quite disappeared. Given his decades of great on-screen work, and his cock’s mostly of-screen credits, your sole memory of “the work” is very inside-baseball.
Keitel is one of those actors who will probably act till he dies. He would never retire. He was also in some classics in the last couple of years like The Irishman, Youth and some Wes Anderson movies.
Genuine treasure this man is.
Yoda this comment wrote for some reason.
Harvey Keitel should do a movie in which he plays the elderly George Burns. I find Lansky fascinating, I find a Harvey Keitel himself fascinating, and I find George Burns to be the definitive straight man I think Harvey Keitel could deliver on the accurate portrayal all of the wisdom of George Burns
I really wonder where was a love story involving Sharon Tate in Once upon a time in Hollywood