Why Steve Buscemi is the hardest working actor in Hollywood, but will never come out of the shadows of American cinema

7/28/2019 Why Steve Buscemi is the hardest working actor in Hollywood, but will never come out of the shadows of Americ

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Steve Buscemi: Why the hardest working actor in Hollywood, will never come out of the shadows of

American cinema.

Weighing with an impressive 124 acting credits to his name, Steve Buscemi is in terms of just

amount of films and TV shows he actually has been in, turning down an opportunity as a fire fighter,

to rekindle his love for acting, set ablaze from the young age of 7, he should surely be recognized as

a heavy weight of the show biz world, so why isnt he?

Steve Buscemi was born in the winter of 1957, to a largely Sicilian family, in the centre of Brooklyn,

New York. From an early age some could already see that he was destined for show business, as

passion for entertaining people ran deep through his veins. At the early age of 7 he was often

performing jokes, skits magic shows for the whole family to enjoy. So we know its something he

always destined to do, and practised at from a young age.

But When I mention too you such films as Reservoir Dogs, The big Lebowski and Fargo, three great

films in their own right, but could their greatness be attributed to that common factor they allpossess? And drum roll please, the answer is, they all feature Steve Buscemi- like you didnt know

that already. But if Steve adds the great factor to all three films, then why is it that if were to

mention any of those three films to your average Joe on the street, first of all they probably wont

find the link between them, but if you where to then ask them, to name an outstanding component

of each of the three, they probably would highlight the style of dialogue from Resiviour, the acting

performance of Frances McDormand from Fargo and the Dude from Big Lebowski - too be fair I cant

blame them for that one, come on! Its the Dude, he pretty bad ass. But is it actually a reflection on

Steves acting skills that means that he is almost the forgotten man, the brides maid and never the

bride, or does it run deeper than that?

Well to answer such a question, we need to tackle such an issue from a verity of different

perspectives. First of all even before we put an argument forward as to why he should be given more

credit, and thrust further into the lime light, we need to answer the most fundamental question first.

Can he act? Yes, yes I know your screaming and pounding your computer screen, or IPad or IPhone

or whatever crazy contraptions, you kids are using these days. But from your angry and frustrated

reaction right now, we are both saying the same thing, which of course is a yes! Its not just an

opinion; I have the facts, and plenty of them. First of all lets take the three films I stated above as a

starting example. Like I said they are all great films, okay and before the anti-buscemis start to rant,

Im not going to say they are great based solely on Steve, which even if I did, would be clearly a lie,

and naive, as one of the reason those films are great, is because they directed by great people, The

Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino, which I believe are both phenomenal talents, who create

unbelievably fresh, and griping movies such as A Serious Man and Pulp Fiction respectively, but Im

just saying that another component to the greatest of said film, is the inclusion of Steve Buscemi,

who isnt just a passive back ground actors, but h actually has a substantial role in all three films,

even acting as a pivotal point of narrative progression. Lets take his role in Fargo for instance

which I believe is still hes best ever performance, which happens to coincide with the fact, that its

the film that gave him the most screen time, Im just saying. In the film Steve Buscemi plays the part

of Carl showalter, paid to fake kidnap the wife of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), and hold her

for ransom, so Jerry can get his grubby hands, on her farther fortune, to cut a long story short as you

would expect, when you hire moronic thugs, things dont go quiet to plan and thus starts a series of


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murders. One of which is Steve Buscemi, should surely Oscar for purely have the greatest film death

in cinema history, come on! Who doesnt love the genius of a wood chipper death? But we will get

onto the subject of awards later.

So what stands out from this film on the behalf of Buscemi is not just the awesome death- and I

mean awesome! Is that he has quiet a big stake, playing your classic conflicted bad guy, as he

protests the murder of the kidnapped wife, then after a depute he faces the chipper. And of course

the guys wasnt all good, he did have his share of blood on in his hands, but at the end of the day

Steve made Carl a very likable person, the type of bad guy you just have to fall in love with, and

thats what Steve does best playing; weird lonely guys or weasel-like, almost incapable of doing

anything right, as his just so inept and useless criminals, but dont worry they have a heart of gold

deep down, in the serial killer, psychotic bodies of theirs, type of roles- but sometime a little too

well.

Let now move on to another segment of the article, awards. With Daniel day Lewis, winning a

historical 3rd best acting Oscar, leaving him widely regarded as the greatest actor of all time. Awards

are a big indication of quality. With the Oscar being the most prestigious of them all, but with all

most 30 years in the business, the big one has still eluded the grasp of Buscemi, even a nominations

seems a little too much to ask for. Im a firm believer that the Oscars are truly a bench mark of

quality, and when an actor or film wins the coveted trophy, its because they do deserve it, because

they where the best that years, okay well not every year, seeing as Brokeback mountain, lost to

Crash for the 2005 best film which is still probably one of the biggest snubs of the last decade. But

dont get me wrong, Crash is an amazing film, and deserves recognition, but not best picture, but

thats not because the Oscars are flawed, crash was at least top 3, which is what is undoutbley the

same every year, all winner, be picture of actors might not be the very best, but are at least top 3,

and for me that good enough, because the margins are truly very slim, and at the end of the day, its

all subjective. But getting back to the point the fact Buscemi has never been nominated, is not a

reflection on the Oscars or Buscemi, because he just isnt in the same league as the likes of Daniel or

Russell crow, but thats not really such a bad thing, so what ifhe wont be in the history books, or

next years Oscar list, or the year after that or then have a New York deli, name a sandwich after

him. All Im saying is that the guy deserves credit, where credit is due. Especially from the film gods,

maybe not in terms of winning gold, but maybe toss him a nomination here or there for old time

sakes. While on the other hand, Steve is a lot more appreciated on the TV of things, appearing on

such critically acclaimed shows as 30 Rock and The sopranos, featuring in 14 episodes and directing 4

episodes on the later. Whilst this time getting an node for an Emmy for best actor in the brilliantshow Boardwalk Empire, where he plays Enoch "Nucky" Thompson who is a corrupt a political figure,

in 1920s Atlantic city which is Buscemi most layered character, resulting in more public attention

for him then any of his films. So with Emmy from TV and Golden globe nomination, its not to that

bad, so why then is he still in the shadows, and right in the middle of peripheral vision of most of

America?

So what are the cases against said recognition? Well for starts from what said before about Buscemi

playing the bad guys with hearts and lonely weird guys, a little too well. People maybe say this is

actually to his determent, which I would love to argue against, but it would be lying, because the guy

does like to play the same type of guys, you look at Ghost world a film Buscemi stared in 2001, withThora Birch, and some girl called Scarlett Johansson, who did absolutely nothing with her career


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after this film. Buscemi places a lonely guy looking for a woman he recently met to contact him,

which is of course a trick played on him by the two female stars, allowing one of them to assume the

identity of the women, and have a gate way into Seymours world, which is of course eccentric and

weird, with character traits like this, you could then link him to his role as the timid Donny, who

constantly told to shut the f**k up, Donny. So as you can see the similarities between the two

characters are canny, you would have said they were brothers, or where alternate reality versions of

each other. Another pair of twins can be seen in Con air and Fargo. In Con air (the greatest film ever

made, but that a different article all together) Buscemi plays Garland Greene, the most feared and

dangerous inmate(all 150 lbs of him) on a plane filled with guys made of breaks. But is notorious for

being a 30 time killer buts it okay who cares about all those families that have lost their sons and

daughters, because the guys sings with a little girl, at one point who all thought he was going to rape

and kill, but its okay because he doesnt do that, so that conceals all his previous crimes, to the

extent that he is allowed to escape at the end of the filmtaking Americas name land of the free

to a whole new levels, seems like serial killers are allowed to be free to. But thats the character

Buscemi plays, a bad guy with a glimmer of good, which coincidentally is also the character trait ofhis twin Carl, from Fargo.

Another aspect working to his detriment is his love of indie films, the guy cant get enough of them,

sure they have artistic merits, but sticking to your blockbusters never did someone like DiCaprio any

bad, and Buscemi can do them. Look at Con Air for example; Buscemi more than holds his own, on a

screen packed with legends! Such as; Malkovich, Cage and John Cusack, looking like a fish in water

next such a stellar class, so we know he can do it. So despite Buscemi, having appeared in so many

indie films, like his writing/directing exploits in works as "Trees Lounge", he does balance it out with

a healthy selection of mainstream films, like all his work with the Coen brothers and Taratino. So its

obviously not his selection choices that are the issue. So what is?

Okay, okay we cant hold off from talking about the elephant in the room, which might be the actual

and definitive reason and superficial reason why Buscemi is in the shadow of American cinema.

When people asked what actor they find attractive, out of 100, or 1000 maybe even the whole of

America, a good 99% - not including the blind. Will never have the Buscemi name, ever pop into

mind, too be honest the guy is no Brad Pitt, or Tom Hardy or even that hairy chested man Simon

Cowell, and you certainly never find him on the magazine of sexist man alive. As much as we would

like to, think that we put talent in front of anything else, that sad fact is we dont, instead of

celebrating his tremendous talent, we would rather draw comparisons to Gollum from Lord of the

Rings - which I find it hard to argue against.

But I feel the main reason he hasnt hit the big times, goes a long way to do with his looks, and some

would say that he loves his indie films a little too much, and that if were to leave the indies

completely behind, and focus entirely on the big budgets blockbusters which he did have success

with, in such films as Con Air, he would have more success despite being hindered by the fact that

he plays the same characters, time and time again, just look at Tom cruise, the guy plays himself in

every film, but yet his Hollywood royalty. But ultimately the fact remains - love him or hate him, hes

a talented guy who deserve a little more respect and admirations, from the business he devoted his

life too, turning away the life of a fire fighter to pursue. But its probably a little too late for things to

change now, so instead lets celebrate him, maybe not on a big scale, but more on a smaller andpersonal one, by continuing to love all his films. Buscemi we salute you.


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Why Steve Buscemi is the hardest working actor in Hollywood, but will never come out of the shadows of American cinema