Barry Levinson is such a deceptive director, because he seems really lackadaisical. I'd never worked with him before, and I almost got the impression that he didn't really care that much because he was so laid-back. Sometimes we'd finish filming hours before the day was over, which is just unthinkable in any other film experience I've had. I couldn't believe that Barry had the passion for it.

Alessandro Nivola

Categorized in : Believe Care Passion

I love costumes. I love getting dressed up because it really helps my imagination make the leap to believe that I am who I say I am.

Alessandro Nivola

costumes imagination believe

I guess Ive always wanted to push the boundaries as an actor.

Alessandro Nivola

actors boundaries wanted

The thing with being able to do accents is that it's still completely separate from being an actor.

Alessandro Nivola

accents able actors

I'm a restless person. I get bored very quickly, particularly with myself. I've used acting as an escape and a way to channel my nervous energy. So I've always looked to find a role that's as different from the one before it. I need change and variety or start to feel depressed.

Alessandro Nivola

bored acting energy

I've often gone to start a film only to find the producers surprised to discover that I'm American.

Alessandro Nivola

film producers gone

I live right under the Hollywood sign, so that every day when I drive home I'm reminded of why I'm here.

Alessandro Nivola

hollywood home

You have to be in movies that make money to be offered work. Basically that's the equation. There's no real way around that. That said, you don't ever make decisions solely for that reason.

Alessandro Nivola

decision real way

Géza Röhrig is just incredible because he's not an actor, he's a Hungarian poet. He also happens to be a brilliant actor. He's totally unusual, the way he talks and thinks and operates isn't in the same language as you're used to from actors who've been in a lot of things before. It brings this completely bizarre and fresh, wonderful way of approaching everything that I love being around. Not where I'm, as a producer, having to interact with him as an artist, but as somebody who can stand back and admire what he's bringing to this thing that I've nurtured to create a stage for him.

Alessandro Nivola

artist love-is thinking

There are so many factors that go into how you feel, as a performer, on any given movie, that it's really hard to identify which things are the things that help you be good, and which are the things that hinder you.

Alessandro Nivola

how-you-feel given helping

The research period of a film is the most exciting part of the process, and filming is sometimes a letdown because when you're dealing with biopic material, the real thing is always much more intricate than the story told in the film.

Alessandro Nivola

research real stories

People are always going to identify with what it's like living in society and have people judge you in certain ways, and how you can be strong enough to be your own person and all those good things.

Alessandro Nivola

strong judging people

Just getting to the point where we are now with 'To Dust' movie - where we've raised the money, put the crew together, signed all the actors up and are going on a certain date - is one of the biggest achievements of my life. It's nice, and producing definitely helps me to use the other side of my brain. I get brain fatigue from all of the creative drive.

Alessandro Nivola

achievement nice creative

I see myself as a character actor, and I've always been drawn to playing characters that are different from myself because acting is escapism for me. I've never been that comfortable playing people that are like me.

Alessandro Nivola

acting character people

A lot of the time with child actors, you get the feeling they’re trying to have a kind of poise or presentation that’s beyond their years that might be put on, but also might be because they’ve spent years just hanging out with adults and they don’t even have a sense of what it’s like to grow up with kids their own age.

Alessandro Nivola

growing-up kids children

Yeah, I’ve played a lot of instruments, and I played in a lot of bands growing up and I’ve even had to play music in a lot of films that I’ve done.

Alessandro Nivola

growing-up band play

There's something different about an indie film than a TV show that has a huge infrastructure that's in place already for you - at least financially and in terms of distribution. Whereas an indie film is just a total dare.

Alessandro Nivola

dare film different

When you speak in another accent, it affects you. You can't help but be changed by it.

Alessandro Nivola

accents speak helping

Well, I've never been in a touring rock band, it was all just high school and college, playing toga parties in frat houses.

Alessandro Nivola

party college school

There are so many things that have to go right for a movie to be good that it's a miracle whenever one is.

Alessandro Nivola

be-good miracle

You're making these movies for pennies, there's absolutely nothing to offer anybody, and they will still fight you! "There's no more back-end for him? Well he'll have your back-end! He'll take your first born child!" Producing is totally exhausting.

Alessandro Nivola

fighting children