Steve Buscemi: "I looked for the page in the script where I was killed to see if it was worth it for me to take the role."

PalmIt's Mr. Rosa de Reservoir Dogs, the clumsy criminal of Fargo and the poet with pretensions of Big Fish. Just for these three characters, the career of actor Steve Buscemi (New York, 1957) is inseparable from the history of contemporary fiction, although these three are little more than the tip of an iceberg that includes titles such as The Big Lebowski, Boardwalk Empireand Pulp Fiction, collaborations with filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch – "the last independent film director we have left," according to Buscemi – and Martin Scorsese, and merits such as having directed one of the best episodes in the history of television series –Pine Barrens, the eleventh of the third season ofThe Sopranos. And if there's one element that all these characters and works have in common, according to Buscemi, it's a good script: he used the expression "a good script" seven times during the press conference held this Wednesday at noon at the Hotel Portitxol in Palma, on the occasion of the ICON Award he received at the Evolution Festival.

"When you read a script, you don't know what it's going to become. You don't even know if it's ever going to get made, or if there's enough of a crew, or if it's going to get distributed," Buscemi explained at one point, "but for me it's the starting point, reading it to see what character will look like, like, and see if I'm interested. Emotions are moving. For me, all of this is decisive when choosing a project, at least now I read scripts differently, I did it because I needed to work. And for a time, directors had a tendency to beat up or kill off my characters.

It was one of the few concessions to spontaneity that occurred during the appearance, in which Buscemi's serenity clashed head-on with the restless nature of some of his most memorable characters, often situated somewhere between drama, decadence, and comedy. "All the projects are different, but for me the best part is sharing the work with other actors and seeing how We push ourselves to be the best we can be. As I said yesterday when I accepted the award, I can only be as good as the people I work with," he confessed.

"Directing Tony Soprano was very challenging."

Asked if he was aware, before playing them, of the significance that some of his most emblematic roles would have, Buscemi has acknowledged that not at all: even in the case of Reservoir dogs which, as he recalled, went through Sundance without collecting anything. "That year I had another film at the festival, In the soup, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the acting award for Seymour Cassel," he explained, "but Reservoir dogs He left empty-handed. In fact, I remember there were screenings of the film where the audience got up and left before the end. Now everything looks different, of course, because we now know everything that happened with Tarantino, but back then it was impossible to foresee. And the same with the Coens. I had already worked with them before Fargo, but it wasn't until that film that they managed to reach the general public. And I assure you that while we were making it, no one could have imagined it."

Even so, Buscemi wanted to emphasize that recognition, for him, is not exactly the same as success. "For me, success is when the director manages to make the film he wanted to make without having to make too many concessions. You always have to make some, but if he manages to make the film he had in mind, I think that's already a success. If it reaches a lot of people or picks up a lot of awards, that's the icing on the cake, but the success of a film shouldn't depend only on that."

In this sense, Buscemi has taken the opportunity to also talk about the main reasons that have led him to get behind the camera in films such as Animal Factory and Interview. "It's an extension of my work as an actor," he argued, "because it allows me to play all the roles, imagine the motivations of all the characters and work with all the actors, something that doesn't always happen when you act in a film. Just yesterday I was with Colm Meaney who, like me, goes out Air Cone, But we don't have any scenes together. When you direct, you can be all over the place, work with everyone, and get into everyone's skin." In the case ofThe SopranosHowever, a series of which he directed four episodes, he has admitted that it was "quite intimidating" for him to come into contact with the characters. "I was already a fan of the series when they invited me to participate, they had already been on for a couple of seasons and directing Tony Soprano was very intimidating," he shared with a smile, "although luckily I already knew some of the actors and crew members and the truth is that I had a great time with all of them." Among the projects he currently has in the works, the actor, who is part of the cast of the second season of the Netflix series Wednesday, has spoken about a film with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell directed by Martin McDonagh –director ofSouls in pain of Inisherin and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri–, from the adaptation of the novel Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro, directed by Taika Waititi, and a series starring Jordan Mendoza on Adult Swim.

"There's always something to do in the face of injustice."

Regarding the political situation in the United States, Buscemi, who publicly offered his support to the candidacies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, has expressed his desire to see a change of government in the next elections. "I hope that, as already happened, they are removed. And on the previous occasion, there was an attempt to prevent the government from leaving office with accusations of election manipulation that were completely false. And all of this led to the insurrection of January 6th, because that was an insurrection, and this is the situation we find ourselves in, but I don't think so, but we are not at all partisan, we are not at all partisan, we are not at all partisan. This is what they are looking for. They want people to stop demonstrating, to think there's nothing they can do, but there is always something to do in the face of injustice." Along these lines, for Buscemi, "people have more in common than it seems." "They want us to believe that this isn't the case, but most of us are looking for exactly the same thing: a dignified life, freedom, and respect for human rights," he concluded, although he wanted to clarify that he is not an activist nor does he feel particularly comfortable with discourse of this kind. "If they ask me, I'll answer because I believe we can't remain silent, but they don't always get the right words. And I know there will be people who think they don't care what an actor thinks about all of this, but I'm not just saying this as an actor. I'm also saying this as a citizen," he added.

Regarding his visit to Mallorca, Buscemi acknowledged that Evolution's location was one of the main incentives for attending – "I'd never been there and I'm really looking forward to exploring the island and meeting the people who live there," he said – and took the opportunity to praise the work they do. "We're a big fan of festivals. They're often the only window many films have to be screened and reach different places, and they allow us to meet the audience and also other filmmakers, actors, and people from the film world, which makes me feel very grateful."