Steve Buscemi keeps getting bumped off in his movies, and when he directs movies (like the upcoming Lonesome Jim) he always seems to make them about loser gloom-heads…but the thing moviegoers love about Buscemi…his ace-in-the-hole material…is when he plays extra-smart guys saying really sassy lines. Reservoir Dogs‘ Mr. Pink explaining why he doesn’t tip, that psycho killer in Con Air explaining the meaning of irony, his high-IQ mobster Tony Blundetto imploring Tony Soprano, “Put me in, coach!” I once suggested to him during an interview that he make and act in a short film about that bar fight he got into two or three years ago standing up for Vince Vaughan, and Buscemi gave me a look that said, “What the fuck are you talking about?” And I’m saying to him right now, “What are you doing directing movies about low-life downer types all the time? Fuck that…play a really sharp wise guy, or direct a movie about one.”
