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Pastimes : Television and Movies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (6243)	9/16/2011 5:03:21 PM
From: Brian Sullivan	2 Recommendations Respond to of 17980

Someday Bill, you will see this most excellent TV series. They also could have credited his small part in Lonesome Dove A Working Actor's Star Turn He has one of the most distinctive faces in movies, but don't ask Steve Buscemi about his looks. "I don't know how to talk about the way I look," the actor says shyly on the phone from his Brooklyn home. "This is how I grew up. This is me. I have three brothers and we all look like my dad." HBO Steve Buscemi admires the great character actor John Cazale, who died in 1978 at 42. Mr. Buscemi, 53, has used his penetrating eyes, slim physique and scraggly teeth to bring to life supporting roles critics have described as a film's "seasoning." Meaning, he always spices up a movie but is rarely the main event. That changed last year with the HBO period drama "Boardwalk Empire." Mr. Buscemi plays the main character Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, a corrupt Atlantic City politician during Prohibition. The role earned him an Emmy nomination and critical acclaim, but some viewers complained they were seeing a sideman suddenly fronting the big band. The second season of "Boardwalk Empire" premieres Sept. 25 and follows Nucky's deeper involvement in the booze trade. The new season highlights familiar supporting characters including Kelly Macdonald as Nucky's lover and Michael Pitt as Nucky's ambitious protégé, Jimmy Darmody. Michael Kenneth Williams ("The Wire") as Chalky White, Nucky's partner in the area's black community, has an especially meaty storyline this season. Mr. Buscemi, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., says he took the role, in part, because it is "practically shot in my backyard." HBO constructed a 300-foot-long boardwalk in Brooklyn overlooking the East River and outfitted it with storefronts and signage typical of 1920s Atlantic City. In high school, Mr. Buscemi worked as an usher at a Long Island movie theater. "I think it was getting to watch those movies over and over again, it does something to you, about the way you perceive a movie. You get to study certain aspects of it, like John [Cazale] in 'Dog Day Afternoon,' " he says, referring to the late actor who played Fredo in the first two "Godfather" movies and was greatly admired by his peers. An alumnus of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, Mr. Buscemi made a name for himself in movies by such filmmakers as Abel Ferrara, Joel and Ethan Coen and Quentin Tarantino. He played a gay bookie in the Coens' "Miller's Crossing" and Mr. Pink, a whiny gangster who refuses to tip ("As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job"), in Mr. Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." He was the kidnapper in "Fargo" who exits in a wood chipper. But he's also made mainstream blockbusters like "Armageddon" and "Con Air." In 2001 he played Seymour, a lonely, love-struck record collector in "Ghost World." Of his résumé he says: "I never set out to be any type of actor. I make my living on a role-by-role basis. I'm a working actor." He knew some of the producers of "Boardwalk Empire" through his work on the fifth season of "The Sopranos," in which he played Tony Blundetto, Tony Soprano's cousin and an aspiring massage therapist who gets pulled into the family business. Though he's involved in criminal activity, Nucky signals a break from the lowlifes and shadowy characters on the fringe of polite society that Mr. Buscemi typically tackles. Women throw themselves at him. Men admire him. He even helps the needy. "He's very ambitious and likes having power, but he also does share the wealth," Mr. Buscemi says. "If it was only about killing each other off, it'd be bad for business."