When I was doing 'Kanche,' a lot of my well-wishers and friends in the industry suggested that I concentrate on doing commercial films.
I turned down 'American Gigolo.' There are many films - like 'Ghostbusters' - that I turned down... The first one I did was 'Foul Play' with Goldie Hawn, but I turned down 'Animal House' - I turned that down.
You always worry about films when you hear about them making decisions after announcements are made.
I'm pretty sure I would never do a full frontal in a movie - for personal reasons, I wouldn't really want to show that.
My criteria for doing theater has always been slightly different than my criteria with movies, in that there are a lot of reasons to do films, having to do with location, money, and first and foremost having to do with script and role and director.
A film is a chain of very difficult decisions, and I think one of them is to choose an accurate cast.
I was told by many well-wishers not to do the film because my role was just a cameo. But it's very important to be part of big, successful films like 'Holiday.'
The biggest mistakes I made in my career were when I said, 'If I do this movie, I'll be able to do a couple more movies.' Those are the times I really got ugly.
What puzzles most of us are the things which have been left in the movies rather than the things which have been taken out.
My crew [on "Fitzcarraldo" filming] actually said, "We have filmed it from outside on the rocks of the shore. We should be on board [the ship]," and I said it's dangerous, I only do it if you cinematographer Thomas Mauch and you actor [Klaus] Kinski decide on your own.
