The Hollywood Profiler: Steve Buscemi

You know the name, you know the face, but you may not know much more about this film veteran. Steve Buscemi started his film career back in the late 1980s and over the years has become an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and director. He was never the on screen star or the man you cheered for and even still today it seems rare to catch Mr. Buscemi in the lead part. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t earn respect and critical praise every time he steps foot onto a set. You may not have known him until he did a little Quentin Tarantino flick by the name of Reservoir Dogs in 1992. Well Mr. Pink is now an iconic character in the QT world, known for his smarmy foul-mouthed persona. Smarmy would be a key element in a lot of Buscemi’s work. He can creep you out with the best of them. The man with a face only a mother (or a hardcore fan) could love, let’s explore the career of Steven Vincent Buscemi.

Being the young film fan that I am, I was introduced to Buscemi in a weird way, through his cameos in Adam Sandler movies. Remember in Billy Madison when the crazy guy crossed Billy’s name off the People To Kill list, then smears lipstick on his face as he listens to Electric Light Orchestra. I believe that’s how I was introduced to the great creepiness of Steve. That was followed up with small parts in Sandler’s The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, Mr. Deeds, and I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. All quite hilarious scenes even though some are only a few minutes.

But Steve’s more serious work is where he shines. In one of his greatest and most leading roles, Steve played ultimate creepo Carl Showalter in the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece, Fargo, in 1996. But this wasn’t his first Coen Brothers role. Much like Sandler did in grabbing him for many roles, Joel and Ethan Coen may have been the ones to discover the BUSCEMI. Whether in a small or large role, Steve has been in 6 Coen features including my favorite movie of all time THE BIG LEBOWSKI. Not to mention he has worked with such prolific directors such as Tim Burton on Big Fish, Martin Scorsese on the Life Lessons portion of New York Stories, Robert Rodriguez on Desperado and Spy Kids sequels, John Carpenter on Escape From LA, Michael Bay on Armageddon and The Island, among many others. He’s appeared in a Pixar film (Monsters Inc) and appeared in one of the most popular television series of all time (The Sopranos).

Do you think all he can do is act?
Steve is also an accomplished director with 4 feature films under his belt (Tree’s Lounge which he also wrote and starred in, Animal Factory, Lonesome Jim, and Interview in which he wrote and starred in appearing on screen for 99% of the movie). Not to mention taking the director’s chair on a few episodes of The Sopranos and Oz for HBO. The man can do it all.

On his plate now he has completed production doing voice work on the animated film Igor about the assistant to the crazy doctor going out and creating something on his own. Steve voices Scamper the Rat, assistant to Igor. More voice work as Bucky in G-Force about a bunch of guinea pigs trying to stop a diabolical genius. In post production is John Rabe, the true story of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre of 1937. Steve will play Dr. Robert Wilson. Some things Steve is filming like Youth in Revolt where he will play the father of Michael Cera, an awkward boy hoping to lose his virginity to his dream girl. Also The Company Men about an aging businessman who struggles to save a sinking company in the bad economy. He’ll be in William H. Macy’s directorial debut Keep Coming Back about a teenager with a crush on a stripper who joins her Alcoholics Anonymous group to be closer to her. No word on what part Steve will have in that one. My most anticipated of Buscemi’s up and coming work is We’re The Millers where Steve stars as an aging pot dealer who realizes his life is meaningless and wants to get out of the business but needs to make one last big score in order to start a new life. He has to assemble a fake family and smuggle a large amount of marijuana into Mexico. Sounds pretty funny and also stars Gob Bluth himself, Will Arnett.

That’s a lot of information on the man but I’m sure even I missed something that someone else holds dear. That’s whats great about Steve Buscemi, whether it be his comedy cameos, his creepo serious roles, or his directing, there’s always something you’ll love of his. He may not have an Oscar win or even a nomination but that doesn’t matter in my book. I’d rather see Steve pop up in a movie over anyone else any day. Now Shut the fuck up Donny and go buy some Buscemi movies!