Jackie Earle Haley: I started acting when I was 5 years old. And I was...

One man's magic is another man's gluey torture session.

Jackie Earle Haley

engineering magic men

Robert Englund's done an amazing job over the years playing Freddy. Everybody's that's a fan of "Nightmare" loves Robert and you know so that's a challenge when you've got to step in a big man's shoes like that, so it's scary but it's also exciting.

Jackie Earle Haley

jobs men years

'Alien' is one of my all-time favorite horror films - that has a great monster.

Jackie Earle Haley

horror aliens monsters

You can't please everybody. All you can do is really just try to work from the heart and do the best job that you can and hope for the best.

Jackie Earle Haley

best-job heart jobs

Playing Willie Loomis was really fun for me because it was something nice and different to embody. It was neat playing this drunken servant who was hypnotized by Johnny Depp.

Jackie Earle Haley

nice different fun

I'm an actor, I worry about everything.

Jackie Earle Haley

actors worry

You know, at this point, my focus still is acting, but I think at some point in time, I definitely want to do some directing, I'm just not sure when. But it's not on my plate big-time right now, just because I'm busy, and I'm having such a great time.

Jackie Earle Haley

focus acting thinking

I've got a lot of wonderfully talented, creative directors I've worked with in Texas, but the market we're in, they kind of have to write to that. I think we've done some cool, simple spots. I was very comfortable in Texas, and getting ready to push out into national stuff, try to get to that national-type creative, and then I got sidetracked with this stuff.

Jackie Earle Haley

simple writing thinking

I don't know what I could say specifically, except that everything I've learned as a kid of course must somehow play into what I do now. I think when everything kind of drifted away, I had to go out into the world and learn how to emotionally be okay with all that, which to me was a decades-long process. But also I happened to find my way in life, to find a living, to figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up. I think all of that now probably helps me. It probably gives me more life experience to draw from.

Jackie Earle Haley

growing-up kids thinking

When you act, it's better not to fake the emotion. It's better to find the emotion within yourself and your experiences, and see if you can bring that back to the surface, so that you can then literally hand it off to the character, and then let him run with it.

Jackie Earle Haley

running character hands

My dad and me were incredibly close. He was an actor, and so him and I shared this whole movie-world thing closer than anyone else in the family.

Jackie Earle Haley

dad actors world

There's such a fan base for 'Dark Shadows'. I remember watching the show as a kid, but I wasn't an ardent fan. I didn't run home from school to watch it.

Jackie Earle Haley

dark home remember school

When you're talking about Tim Burton, you're talking about a guy that has such a visual sense, an aesthetic, a storytelling style. It's like he's got his own genre.

Jackie Earle Haley

you aesthetic style talking

That transition from child to adult actor is so incredibly elusive. The roles that were coming to me as a young adult were not that great, but I was taking them anyway to pay the rent. And the more bad roles in bad movies I took, the less anybody wanted me for a good role in a good movie.

Jackie Earle Haley

great good child me

I'd always avoided stuff like 'Where are they now?' or 'Whatever happened to?' Just 'No thanks, thanks for calling.' You tell me, have you ever seen a 'Whatever happened to' where they seemed anything but pathetic?

Jackie Earle Haley

me you always thanks

I bite the hell out of my fingernails. I can't stop. I should stop. It would be nice to grow my fingernails out. It would be healthier. I could pick up dimes.

Jackie Earle Haley

stop grow hell nice

The horror genre is not my favorite. I think it's fun, there's a great place for it and I get a kick out of it, but some stuff I'm too old for. You can't just take 10 guys and stick them in a cabin and off them one at a time - I'm not vested.

Jackie Earle Haley

great think you time

I'll give you my worst nightmare. I'm dreaming that I'm onstage, the curtain goes up, and I have no idea what my lines are or what's going on. I think I should know, I kind of know, I remember rehearsing... and the audience is there waiting.

Jackie Earle Haley

think you waiting remember

I've never been a big horror genre fan, but I did go see 'Nightmare on Elm Street' in the theaters and I dug it. I thought it was cool.

Jackie Earle Haley

street never thought cool

Robert Englund's done an amazing job over the years playing Freddy. Everybody that's a fan of 'Nightmare' loves Robert and you know so that's a challenge when you've got to step in a big man's shoes like that, so it's scary but it's also exciting.

Jackie Earle Haley

challenge you man shoes

I started acting when I was 5 years old. And I was pretty well known for a while. Your self-esteem and your identity start to become wrapped up in that celebrity, and when that starts to fade away, your self-esteem and your identity start to fade away with it.