When we last talked,Ray Liottawas thinking a lot about mortality.
Im at the age now there are some things you just forget, he mused.
60 was amotherf*ckerfor me.
Ray Liotta in Noah Baumbach’sMarriage Story.Netflix/Everett Collection
Some people age better, and with some its like, Whoa, what happenedthere!?
Youre like me, he told me.
Youve got a babyface and youre not lined.
I have really oily skin.
Our view was directly obscured by a window that had a spider-webbing crack.
Next up wasThe Many Saints of Newark, David ChasesSopranosprequel.
I figured that would be the one, after witnessing the mastery with which Liotta played his dual roles.
Apple let me choose every other character except Big Jim Keene, he says.
I wrote the part with Ray in mind, he says.
I was a fanatic about Jonathan DemmesSomething Wild, one of my favorite films.
Hes the pivot, the axis on which the whole movie turns.
Lehane was a kid in college back then, when the film premiered in the late 80s.
I remember going, Who the f*ck is this guy?
He just came out of nowhere.
I can still see him when he first enters frame, and he dances up beside Melanie Griffith.
Thats because of Ray, and that boyish charm.
And when he plays a good guy, you sense the malevolence in him.
You half expect that sweet guy to kick the puppy across the room.
Ray and I had a bunch of conversations about that.
That dichotomy, that paradox, was really exciting to write.
And it was super-exciting for him to play.
Lehane chose his moment carefully.
Lehane told Liotta it was his favorite film and asked if hed sign the poster.
He looked to his fiancee and he was like, Can you believe this f*cking kid?
He wants me to sign a f*ckingposter.
He was so touched and it was really moving.
That poster is on the way down to my basement, where I have my little home theater.
I see it every day, and it just hits me every time.
No matter what, youre with me now.
And this sounds cliched, but its really true.
The last thing Ray said to me was, Make it a bigger part.
So, it hits me every time I see that poster.
Id thought, Ill work with you forever, but there is no forever.
So, heres your interview, Ray, and I hope it helps.
And he began by describing his regret when thrown a creative curveball he was too inexperienced to handle properly.
DEADLINE:Seeing as were in a baseball stadium, I guess we should start with Field of Dreams.
What do you recall from that shoot?
[Laughs] For one thing, Shoeless Joe hit left-handed and threw right-handed.
I bat righty and I throw lefty.
The director and the producers came down and they huddled up.
But they didnt, and we left it wrong.
It was only my third movie, so I didnt have the confidence to say no.
[Laughs] Oh,f*ck.
RAY LIOTTA:You know, Ive actually never seen the movie.
DEADLINE:Why not?
LIOTTA:Because my mother had cancer, and I was in the middle of doingGoodfellas.
There was a screening one weekend.
Her lungs started getting… She felt the fluid coming.
She was having trouble breathing, so we just left.
I dont know why Ive never seen it.
Its not like if I watched it, Id cry.
But thats why Ive never seen it.
DEADLINE: This was the third movie in your career.
Can you tell while making a movie likeField of Dreamsthat it has a shot at immortality?
LIOTTA:You cant tell.
These kids who see it when theyre old enough.
Even this one,Marriage Story.
This is a really, really good movie.
DEADLINE:Not yet.
LIOTTA:Doing a series?
I started out doing a soap opera.
I never even wanted to do this, and I wasnt sure what I wanted to do.
I walked out of my SATs.
I was just going to take regular Liberal Arts, just general stuff.
I didnt even want to be in f*cking college!
I looked up and there was the drama department.
It was just fun.
Theres a really pretty girl.
She says, Youre going to the audition tonight?
No, I said.
Id just played sports my whole life, and she justberatedme.
Like, What do youmean?
Youve got to do the plays!
Itsall aboutdoing the plays.
Thats how you really learn.
Anyhow, I went out for the play.
They did a production ofCabaretthe year before.
The leads were still there, but some people had graduated, so there were openings.
So, I did the audition and I got it.
The first thing I did was a dancing waiter inCabaret.
I didnt know you had to have the music memorized.
He says, What are you doing?
I said, Ive got to sing a song.
He says, What, do you think I have this music memorized?
Put it back there and just get up there and sing.
I got up and I couldnt remember a thing…
I grew up in New Jersey.
We were, like, 45 minutes to the city.
My parents took me to see [the 1972 musical]Pippinthere.
So, I remembered one song, but all I remembered was, We got magic to do…
I couldnt remember the words.
Then theyre yelling up at me, everybodys watching, it wasnt like private auditions.
They had that song Do the Freddie.
I started doing the Freddie dance and singing We got magic to do!
We got magic to do!
DEADLINE:You got the job, though.
Thats when it started, so I decided to go back the next year in between freshman and sophomore.
I worked in a cemetery that, coincidentally, was called Hollywood Park.
I went back and I started getting the leads in most of the shows and it kept going.
Now, I never even used to go to movies when I was growing up.
The only movies I saw were The Beatles movies or Clint Eastwood movies.
My parents would take us on Sundays to go see a movie.
Thats back when they had an intermission.
[Pauses] I forgot where I started this story.
DEADLINE:Well, you were talking about college.
LIOTTA:Oh, so I went back, and I just started to do it.
I just liked it.
The third day I was in New York I got a commercial.
Within a week I got an agent, the next week I had a manager.
Luckily, I was prepared, because back then… Well, now everything is more serious.
My daughter is an actress and shes got to do self-tapes, and thats how they do it now.
A friend of mine from college was doingJaws 2or something like that.
I said, Im an actor?
She said, Oh, really?
Why dont you come back in a week or two and do a monologue for us.
I said, Just give me a minute.
I went to the bathroom.
I came out and I just f*cking nailed it, and she signed me.
So, I was starting to go out for stuff.
Within a month, I was being flown to LA forBeatles Are Forever.
I didnt get that.
Then on a rainy day they gave me an audition for a soap.
I said, I dont want to be on a f*cking soap opera.
They said, Well, youre going to make money doing it.
So, I ended up doing it.
DEADLINE:Which soap was it?
LIOTTA:It wasAnother World, and I played the nicest character in the world, Joey Perrini.
So, I was working with really good actors.
Kathleen Widdoes was my mother.
She was just great.
So, I really was learning in front of the camera.
Then I moved to LA in 81.
I did a guest slot in Ralph Waites showThe Mississippi[in 1983].
My dad handled my money from the soap, so I was living off that.
For five years nothing really happened.
I was going to an acting class with this guy called Harry Mastrogeorge, who was just great.
I went for 12 years, even when I started doing movies.
It was like working out.
DEADLINE:Your first big break was Something Wild.You were shot out of a cannon.
LIOTTA:That was my first movie.
They said, Did you go up for this movie,Something Wild?
Why dont you call Melanie [Griffith] and ask her?
When I moved to LA I stayed at her house, and she took my place in New York.
My parents were involved in politics, so theyll call anybody for favors [laughs].
But I didnt want to do it that way.
She said, Yeah, sure, Ray.
Ive been doing this for a long time.
Its been really hard to cast this.
She said, Jonathan, yousaidI could [have a say]…
So, I went in.
Monday, I talked, Tuesday, they had me read with an actor.
Wednesday, I read with an actress.
Thursday, they said, We want you to come in and read with Jeff Daniels.
Im watching Johnny Carson the night before.
And Jack Nicholson, because hed made a movie with him and Shirley MacLaine.
He was talking about working with them on…
DEADLINE:Terms of Endearment.
I said, Oh, my God.
I was doing pushups.
I was looking at the script.
I was like, I really got to f*cking be on my A-game.
Luckily, I was working on it so much anyway.
I went and did a scene that I just explode on.
Hes coming from New York.
He wants to meet you tomorrow at Hugos on Santa Monica Boulevard for breakfast.
Hes flying out that afternoon.
I went, met with him, we talked.
He said, As you know, I have three other guys that Im looking at.
Ive got to think this through, and Ill let you know in the middle of the week.
To me, the middle of the week was the next day, Monday.
Tuesday, nothing, Wednesday, nothing.
Oh, f*ck.
Then Thursday I get a call.
Ive been sitting on the phone waiting for three days here.
DEADLINE:Doing pushups.
LIOTTA:Exactly [laughs].
He said, Ray, I would like you to play Ray Sinclair.
That was the name of the character.
I said, Oh, wow.
Thank you so much.
I hung up the phone and just cried.
After years of trying.
But that happened to every actor that I really liked.
Do you remember the movie?
DEADLINE:Of course.
So, what was your second film?
LIOTTA:Dominick and Eugene.
I would read everything about actors.
DEADLINE:Youdidnt want to be stereotyped?
I waited, like, a year.
It got the same distributor, Orion, who gotSomething Wild.Dominick and Eugenecame.
I read it, and I was playing a medical student.
I had a brain-damaged fraternal twin brother played by Tom Hulce, who was f*cking great.
So, this is the one I want to do.
I mean I still tell people now, If you have a doubt, Ill come in and read.
I dont care about that.
Nobody really saw that movie, but it was going to film festivals withSomething Wild.
So, I was the new kid.
I was getting lots of scripts by then.
I changed agents, Im at CAA and all of a suddenField of Dreamscame along.
It was being produced by the guys that I did the series with,Our Family Honor.
They just offered it to me.
I read it and I said, This is the stupidest f*cking movie Ive ever read.
Hes got a cornfield, and hes going to put in a baseball field and he hears voices?
That wasnt my mentality.
I was still not seasoned enough to really get it.
But Kevin Costner was in it.
None of us had gotten a job yet.
Kevin was the first one.
It just so happened that we all became friends and things happened.
So, then I was swinging the bat forField of Dreams.
I was the first person that Marty met, and it took a year to get it.
I was at the Venice Film Festival withDominick and Eugeneand [Scorsese] said, Let me see it.
Back then it was these big video cassettes.
My dad and I were at the Excelsior Hotel.
I said, Dad, thats Marty Scorsese.
He was there withLast Temptation of Christ.
I said, I just want to talk to Marty.
I was like, Whatever you want, Ill do it.
So thats what happened, and I was off and running.
I didnt know it would turn out how it did.
DEADLINE:Now, you have so much voiceover dialogue, delivered rat-a-tat-tat.
We learn from you what is missing in many mob movies: how the system works.
LIOTTA:Thats true, becauseThe Godfatherwas just, Thats the way it was.
You didnt see the journey to get there.
I said, I get home every… And they said, No, youve really got to gethome.
I was outside, and they say that when you get information like that, your knees buckle.
Well, my f*cking knees buckled, and I was gone.
I went to Marty, whos not real emotional.
We go to the trailer.
He said, Just get yourself together.
Weve got to finish this thing now.
So, then you rush home, and your mom was…
LIOTTA:She waited for me.
My mom was a big cuddler.
She was a big woman.
She was laying there, and she was sleeping.
DEADLINE:Oh, my.
What did she ultimately die from?
LIOTTA:It was the cancer.
But she was waiting for me to say goodbye.
I didnt want to go because I knew what was coming.
So, Im crying my eyes out.
I call my best friend Gene.
Thats who I took the acting thing with in high school.
Then I finally went.
I could have gotten there maybe an hour or two earlier, but she still waited.
I started falling asleep.
It was like seven in the morning and my sister was just washing up.
She says, Ray, look at Dad.
I heard that last breath.
There really is a last breath.
Im adopted, so I dont have those genes, but my mom died when she was 63.
I didnt go to the premiere.
I didnt even know anything about doing PR.
It was the same feeling then of whats happening withMarriage Story.
A lot of people are talking about how its a really, really good movie.
I play a lawyer, which is great because Im a shark, you know.
DEADLINE:You play Adam Drivers characters lawyer, Jay Marotta.
He doesnt really prepare.
When they go to court, Laura Dern just chews him up and spits him out.
He realizes, Oh, f*ck, I need somebody like [Jay].
DEADLINE:Did you see Quentins movie,Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?
DEADLINE:I watched that movie, and first time I connected with Brad Pitts stuntman character.
Then its all about the insecurity of an actor.
I wonder, now youve been doing this for a really long time, how you feel about that.
LIOTTA:Thank God for Avi Lerner.
He would hire people that still had some foreign value and thats how I got through it.
Going to f*cking Bulgaria for movies.
DEADLINE: So, he was a bit of a lifeline.
Even just lately, up until I did theSopranosprequel,The Many Saints of Newark.
Definitely had up and downs, no question.
But you also remember the up times, too.
Ive had this feeling before, whats going on with those other movies.
But commercials, that got me through a downtime.
DEADLINE:What commercials did you do?
LIOTTA:The first one that I did was 1800 Tequila.
Those were really great spots.
It was really well done.
Then just lately I did Chantix [an anti-smoking treatment].
I was readingRolling Stone, and there was a thing about me doing the Chantix commercial.
They said, for some reason, it draws you in.
Its scary as shit.
Its like Henry Fonda said, after every movie, you wonder if theyre going to call again.
Theres a joke that Im sure youll appreciate.
Two agents are walking down the hall.
The other says, I dont know, Im the only one whos read it.
Thats whats happening now.
Its f*cking crazy.
DEADLINE: So youre getting a lot of offers then.
Im going to send you a script.
One was just a few days ago.
Youre happy about it, but part of me is saying, Motherf*cker!
Im the same actor as I was before!
But they need the selling point.
DEADLINE:Why did you do the TV series Shades of Blue with Jennifer Lopez?
LIOTTA:Thats a great question.
DEADLINE:Was the stigma already removed by that point?
This whole thing started with Netflix, with Kevin Spacey and that president thing.
They wanted me because I had legitimacy with what they wanted, for the thing to be edgy.
With Jennifer… Thats a big question mark.
I really like her.
She was really good in it, but its not ideal.
Im not her valet.
This was a really interesting character.
I wasnt saying, Give me, Ray, more screen time.
DEADLINE: How does the writing in TV compare with the movies?
LIOTTA:What happened is, the studios changed.
So, youve got to then find your way.
But dont complain if you sit at home and nothings happening.
Youve got to play the game to beat them at the game.
And thats what the game is now.
But movies like this one,Marriage Story…
Thank God for Netflix.
I dont know who else would give money forMarriage Story.
Its a great movie, but its thought-provoking and emotional.
So, youve got to do it because theyre doing all those kinds of movies.
That was a lucky one.
LIOTTA:Because I was an idiot.
DEADLINE:Were you offered?
LIOTTA:Something Wildcame out, so I was getting attention from that.
My agent called me up and said, Tim Burton would like to meet you.
Hes doing a movie,Batman.
There were never any superhero movies then.
That was pretty much the first one.
I said, Are you f*cking nuts?Batman?!
Im going, No, thats stupid.
Who was stupid?Iwas stupid because I didnt know.
I just wanted to like David.
It was really like I felt working with Marty.
You just want to do the story, get down to what its about.
DEADLINE: Did you watchThe Sopranos?
LIOTTA:I watched the first year or so.
The only thing I watch all the time isFamily Guy.
You remember things that are really important…
[He looks at the broken window].
This is unbelievable, how cool it is talking with you about this.
Its easy to talk when youre looking out over a baseball field.
Its like talking to my daughter.
It becomes too heavy when its face-to-face.
Its not like youre talking.
Youre just letting thoughts go.
[Pauses] Imagine we were sitting here when Vlad hit that ball?
DEADLINE:Id probably fall out of my chair, I think.
LIOTTA:[Laughs] Thats a hell of a shot.
