E-mail a friendRay Liotta
airdate April 8, 2009
Ray Liotta has established himself as one of the most respected supporting players of his generation. He began his career in New York, with a role on daytime's Another World, and broke into movies in the dark comedy Something Wild. After his critically acclaimed performance in Goodfellas, he gained wide popularity. He won an Emmy for a guest appearance on ER and earned his first producer credit with the indie feature Narc, in which he also starred. Liotta can next be seen in the comedy film Observe and Report.
Observe and Report star jokes with Tavis about having to watch himself on the monitor. (1:24)
Full interview. (10:14)
Ray Liotta
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Ray Liotta to this program. The talented, Emmy-winning actor has starred in so many terrific projects, including, of course, "Goodfellas," "Field of Dreams," and "Something Wild." He's taking a comedic turn for his latest film, "Observe and Report." The movie opens around the country this weekend. Here now, a scene from "Observe and Report."
[Clip]
Tavis: (Laughs) Ray, nice to have you on.
Ray Liotta: Thank you.
Tavis: You leaned over to me and whispered during the trailer, "This is really a very funny film," so you believe that, obviously.
Liotta: Oh, it definitely is. The first time I saw it I liked it, but it wasn't with an audience. I saw it the other night with an audience, and it's really - it's out there, it's raw.
Tavis: What's the difference between seeing something, to your point now, without an audience versus with an audience, and what are you looking for or listening for when you see it as an actor in the film with an audience?
Liotta: Well, if it's a comedy you're listening for a laugh. (Laughter) That's pretty much - that's really all it boils down to. A lot of the stuff I've done, you could - it's your own - the way you look at it just as a person. But that one needed an audience.
Tavis: Give me the story line for the movie. You obviously play the real cop versus Seth playing the mall cop. I'll let you tell the story.
Liotta: Right, yeah. Seth is a mall cop and a very, very serious mall cop. He really wants to be a cop, and he's just got a bizarre personality. His mother's whacked out and a crime happens at the mall. I'm a cop; as I say, I get the short end of the straw. I have to go to the mall to find out what was going on. I don't want to be there, and just all the hijinks happens off of that.
Tavis: What drew you to this character? Why did Ray want to do this?
Liotta: Because it was a comedy, because of Seth. He's got a whole different audience that I'm not used to having. I saw Jody Hill, the director's, movie, "Foot Fist Way," and it was really funny. And he really takes some chances. He definitely has a unique voice.
There's a lot of these R-rated comedies now, but this is just really extreme. It's done in a reality but some of it's, like, shocking, but in a really funny way. So as a matter of fact I had to audition for this because I think he saw it for somebody younger, and I just really wanted to be a part of it. So I don't care if I have to audition, so I went in and read with Seth and luckily, it worked out.
Tavis: That last comment, Ray, raises a couple of questions for me. Let me start with this one: At this point in your career, when you are asked to audition for something, how do you process that internally? Does it clash with your ego, does it clash with your accomplishments? How do you get - Ray Liotta having to audition for something?
Liotta: Yeah, I'm a good auditioner, though. (Laughter) No, I just - if I want it, then if this is what you have to do, this is what you have to do. There's something else that's going on now and the director's not sure - because a lot of these directors are very pressured. It's better when you work with someone who's got a few movies under their belt and they know how to look at previous performances or whatever to see if you're right for it.
But if I have to do it and it's something I want, I really don't mind at all. If anything, they get to see me, I get to see them as director, so it doesn't bother me at all.
Tavis: I wonder - and I don't want to get inside the director's or the casting person's head - but I wonder if for a project like this that is a comedy whether or not the stuff you've done before, the dark stuff, playing the heavy, playing the bad guy in so many films, is why Ray gets called in for an audition.
Liotta: Yeah, well, but also too they didn't see "Muppets from Space." (Laughter) They didn't see "Operation Dumbo Drop." I've done some movies that there is - it's kind of funny. See, I'm making you laugh.
Tavis: Yeah, yeah. (Laughs) Yes. Have you ever worried at a particular point in your career that playing the bad guy in so many films backs you into a corner?
Liotta: No, no, no, so I would always do a different part. On my first movie I was someone bad, and then I was a nice guy, then "Goodfellas" and "Field of Dreams." But what happens is what I've noticed, because there have been - I did "Corrina, Corrina" with Whoopie and "Dominick and Eugene," a heartbreaker.
There are movies where I'm a nice guy, but I think what happens is unless you really know an actor's whole resume, you don't realize that there's other things that they've done.
Tavis: Are you comfortable with people knowing you, though, for the stuff that they know you for as opposed to stuff that you're talking about now?
Liotta: Bad guys stand out in people's minds.
Tavis: Exactly, that's what I was getting at.
Liotta: If you look at other actors who've played good guys and bad - when you think of Al Pacino you don't think of, like, "Author, Author." And I'm not comparing myself to him at all; I should be so lucky. But actors who've done bad guys, usually those parts stand out and not the lighter ones.
Tavis: Is it just me, or is "Goodfellas" on, like, somewhere every night. You ever flip channels and just - every night I'm flipping channels, I run into it somewhere.
Liotta: Yeah, no, and if I do see it I don't like watching myself. I'll watch the movie once or twice, just to see the finished product, but if it's on TV, no, I go right past it.
Tavis: I was cracking up - I'm always - one of the things I do every time I have a guest on this program, every night, every day, if we're playing a clip, for some reason my eye always goes to the guest. I'm trying to see how they're responding to the clip that we're playing. And I've never seen this in all the years I've been doing this - you turned away from the clip. You didn't look at the clip, but you're saying to me, "This is a very funny movie."
Liotta: Yeah.
Tavis: I was trying to put those two things together. You're not even looking at this, Ray. You won't look at yourself, but you're telling me how funny the movie is.
Liotta: I know, but I just really think it's odd if all of a sudden I come on and I just sit and I'm watching myself. (Laughter) It just doesn't - see? I'm funny. (Laughter) It just doesn't make sense to me. I just - because you see it and it - I had a friend who used to invite people over to his house if his show was on television, and he'd have a room full of people. (Laughter)
I can't - like, I don't even like that the monitor there - I don't want to see - like, there I am. But I won't look at it.
Tavis: Turn that monitor out, please.
Liotta: No. (Laughs)
Tavis: Turn that around. The audience can't even see this, but -
Liotta: No, wait, how's my hair?
Tavis: There we go - is that better?
Liotta: Yeah.
Tavis: It's better. (Laughs) Now Ray doesn't have to see himself. So you must have a real problem with mirrors, then.
Liotta: I only have them in my bathroom.
Tavis: Oh, yeah? (Laughs) I get that.
Liotta: Unless the lighting's good. (Laughter) Then I could look for a long time.
Tavis: This guy is funny.
Liotta: It's true.
Tavis: Let me switch gears to something that isn't funny. I've been wanting to ask you about this when I first read about this actually some years ago. You're adopted.
Liotta: Yeah.
Tavis: You have a daughter who's 10. At a certain point not too, too long ago you decided that you wanted to go find your birth parents. Why did you do that? Why did you want to do that, and why at this point in your life?
Liotta: Because at the time, when we were getting ready to have a kid, there's a lot of information that you don't know about. So you just kind of like - really, it was just to see what my history was, medically. And then there was a curiosity; it was something that kind of weighed on my mind for a while.
But when I finally found out in my 40s, you realize that the best thing in the world was that I was adopted, only based on that my birth mother had circumstances that didn't warrant her to keep a kid. So really, I think 99 percent of the time when people are adopted you think is it me, or you look at it that it's you, but it's really there's usually, like nine times out of 10, a really good reason for it.
Tavis: You comfortable - and if you're not, I understand - telling me anything about what that meeting was like when you finally connected?
Liotta: I found out I had four half-sisters; I have a half-brother that I had no idea about. There was a full sister. They're all really, really great people, really nice. I saw my birth mother; that was a trip. It was emotional. So I learned that stuff and then I just looked at it as I didn't want to have to buy any more Christmas presents. (Laughter) It was so many people. It's true.
And I did this once before, and if you're listening, I'm really sorry - they got, like, offended by some of the stuff that I said. But it's just that's what happened - I wanted to know about it, but it's expensive.
Tavis: So your birth mother meets you and you're freaking Ray Liotta.
Liotta: Yeah, yeah. It happened over the phone. I didn't tell right off the bat that it was me. I just said I live in California; I don't want to get into what I do. And then finally at the end of it I said - because the whole thing was about disclosure. So I said, "Yeah, I'm an actor." "Who are you? Do I know who you are?" "No, I'd rather not say it."
Called the next week and again I'm saying, well, I want to find out information from her. Because the first time it was just, like, really quick. And then I told her - she asked, "All right, so who are you? You're an actor, who are you?" I said who I was and "I knew it, I knew it." And she found out that - (laughter) because what happened is I did a - what did I do? What was it called? Ask me something else, I forgot. I did, I forgot what I was going to say.
Tavis: It's a great story.
Liotta: My mind's - I know, I know, but I forgot it. I don't know which one to pull in.
Tavis: You can't just stop the story in the middle of it like that.
Liotta: I did, but wait - oh, oh, that's what it was. (Laughter) I did an interview for "GQ" magazine and I was so sick of being typecast, like, as Italian, because I know if I'm Italian it's very little, so I didn't want to be always thought of as Italian, Italian, Italian.
So I don't know, that's it, it was just I just found out. So she read the article and I said that I was adopted, and they kind of put two and two together, just physically, and that was it.
Tavis: The new movie, "Observe and Report." As you can see, Ray Liotta is funny. (Laughter) And the movie is funny. Ray, nice to have you here.
Liotta: Okay, thanks.
Tavis: It's a pleasure to talk to you, man.
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