'Barney Miller' was a lot of fun. I'm very fond of Abe Vigoda. Most - a lot of people on that cast - I really liked.
The Academy Awards were basically created by the industry to promote pictures. They weren't really to acknowledge the performances. Then it became sort of this a great popularity contest and now, it's an incredible show and it's seen all over the world.
The health of the planet is at stake, because the cruelty and the waste that accompanies the slaughter of billions of animals each year literally infects us all. We could consume healthy plant-based food produced at almost infinitely less cost. What does that say, really, about us and what we're doing... to animals and to ourselves?
I play an 89-year-old man whose wife has Alzheimer's in a movie called 'Still.' I play a World War II veteran, I acted with my son and it's called 'Memorial Day.'
When I did 'Babe' I wanted to talk about animal rights without going through some convoluted justifications about using animal products.
I'm an animal rights activist because I believe we won't have a planet if we continue to behave toward other species the way we do.
During the run up to the Iraq War, Mike Farrell and I did get on television kind of frequently, but then they saw that that didn't work. They really couldn't bait us into being stupid, so they stopped. You know the mainstream media, corporate media, avoids ever giving anyone who has anything to say a platform, if they can possibly help it.
I was going to design sports cars, but my father came to my college to visit me. At the time he was making a picture in Sweden and he took me there with him. I got to see Ingmar Bergman's company and I thought, 'Gee, filmmaking is a lot more fun than sports cars,' so I decided to follow him and go into acting.
My definition of a character actor is - they never get the girl.
I don't know how many parts I've lost because a lot of the politics in California are very conservative, and I'm fairly outspoken. I always tried to get as much politics in as I could, because I do believe in class struggle, and I think that's what's left out.
The kids know me from 'Babe,' but usually it is 'L.A. Confidential' that people remember, which was the second film I did. I have worked with some really good people and the films that I've done for the most part have been good.
I always change my words in everything I do. I make the language fit, because I know the character from the inside out. Often character actors are not in a position to do that, but I do it. I don't change any cue and I never change anybody else's lines, but I make my own words fit my mouth.
The attitude we have towards our personal pets as opposed to the animals that suffer under the factory farm is hypocritical and delusional.
My first films were comedy, 'Murder By Death,' and 'The Cheap Detective.' But now they won't think of me as a comedian. Now, they think of me as a bad guy, and I can't do comedy.
I think the relationship of indigenous people to their environment... that those were ethical omnivores.
Anybody can call me Jamie, and you have to watch it when you call me James. Then there's going to be a problem.
'Jamie' is what my mother gave me, and that takes the onus off of being big. Somebody thinks, 'Oh, Jamie - how threatening can he be?'
I auditioned for 'Revenge Of The Nerds,' and I so did not want the picture. I didn't want it. I didn't want be in anything that had nerds anywhere.
Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.
Often we're recreating what we think we're supposed to be as human beings. What we've been told we're supposed to be, instead of who we authentically are. The key about the creation of full self-expression is to be authentically who you are, to project that.
