I come from a violent background. So I became hard. I realised that I had made myself that way to deal with a feeling of abandonment and shame.
A couple of guys won Academy Awards for the things that I turned down. Today, after coming to terms with everything, after being in therapy for a long time-there are areas where I will compromise.
The acclaim I'm getting for 'The Wrestler' means everything in the world to me. But it also means I can't take my foot off the gas pedal.
You know, back in acting school they always teach you, 'Make bold choices and look for activities that are interesting.'
I spent so long studying really hard to become a fine actor, but threw it all away because I got the adulation and the fame so easily.
When I first met Alan Parker, who directed 'Angel Heart,' he'd heard so many horror stories about me that he was literally scared to death of me. Right away, he sat me down and said, 'I'm very scared of you. I've heard you're a very bad boy.'
I had some things I had to fix. It took me 14 years to do it. But it was never really fun back in the day to work with directors who were a lot older and were like authoritarian and talking to you like that.
I didn't have a childhood, really, because I worked my whole life and... other reasons. So when I had some success, I went ballistic. That was my childhood, and the party kept going on.
I behaved worse than anybody for 15 years, and you have to pay the price for that. I used to blame other people, then therapy made me realise I had to change.
I had a bonding problem when I went off and boxed for five years. I was over in Europe and Asia fighting because I wanted to do something different; I was tired of acting. But the thing is, when I was done doing that, I couldn't get a job.
Bounty hunters these days - because everything is so sophisticated with computers and surveillance, it doesn't have to be a one-man-army-type guy who goes in and kicks a door down.
I never look backwards. I have always been an athlete. I boxed before I acted.
Comeback is a good word, man.
It was the most fun I've ever had on a movie. It was one of the happiest times in my life. I was living in New York, and I really enjoyed acting at the time. Also, it's funny because that was also the time when I went downhill.
All that prosthetic makeup drains you. By the time it's lunch, you're done.
Mitch Glazer and I went to high school together, and his mother was my English teacher for two years. She was my favorite teacher, and I followed Mitch's career as a journalist, so we've kind of kept in touch over the years.
Very few men can fall as far as I have and come back. People see me and it's like they've seen a ghost, like I'm back from the dead.
Some of your worst gangsters are guys who were very low-key.
I love the first Godfather movie, part one. And two.
I have a really good relationship with a lot of designers. I like Gaultier, Billionaire and Cavalli.
