He and Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift — the three of them — represented a new age in acting. Acting entered a kind of realism [in the mid-'50s] that was exploring depth of emotion for males, and a reality that was more accurate.

I'm from a working-class family. We didn't have a lot, but we had the arts. You're talking to a guy who is making a living at doing what he loves doing - acting, singing and dancing. So any career ups and downs were not that significant to me; the only things that really powerfully impinged on me were my losses, and there were many in my life.

I knew at an early age I wanted to act. Acting was always easy for me. I don't believe in predestination, but I do believe that once you get where ever it is you are going, that is where you were going to be. Was I always going to be here? No I was not. I was going to be homeless at one time, a taxi driver, truck driver, or any kind of job that would get me a crust of bread. You never know what's going to happen.

I think, for sure, 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Pulp Fiction' were kind of bookends for - or the pillars of - my career.

And now after all this time I finally figured out how to trap him... I will become him.

I was suited for fame, and I mean that in the most non-egocentric way. I don't mind gearing my life towards privacy. It's my nature.