That period between finishing the film and opening night is agonising. That's part of why actors go from job to job - so they don't have to live with the anxiety in the interim.
I've learned that you can never predict what will happen to a film. You can never predict if people will love it, if they'll hate it. It's an act of ego if you're hoping for everyone to love the film and tell you how great you are.
George Lucas was casting about and had heard favourable things about my work in Clockwork Orange and asked me to come in, which of course I did even though no one knew what the film was about!
When you're making an independent film, there is no guarantee that anyone is going to see it, ever.
I don't talk about films even after I sign them because between the signing and the shooting, anything can happen. I am not superstitious, it's just that I don't like talking about a film that is not completed.
You can do a movie and hope it may be great, but until you have seen it, you don't know. I loved 'Rampart.' I love that one called 'The Hi-Low Country' that Steven Frears shot.
I knew I was a good stage actor but I had no idea about movies. And I wasn't a Paul Newman type of guy. That's why I thought the stage is just right for me.
I've worked on movies that are being rewritten as you go, but you take so long and so much time doing it, that it's not really an issue knowing what's going to happen or how the movie is going to end.
You never have any idea where your movie's going to go when you're shooting - you're in this little bubble.
When you go into a film, you read it, and something clicks for you, and you like it, and you sign on for it; you go for it. You know that this is going to be a good film, and that is your best hope. Past that, it's a crap shoot - you roll the dice.
I was thinking about doing another film at the same time, which was the sequel to Basic Instinct and I just had a feeling that wasn't going to happen. You know, I just kind of read the writing on the wall.
Theater for me is terrifying but much more rewarding, because you know what they're seeing. Film is all little bits and pieces. And you can do an amazing job, but if the camera isn't getting it, it doesn't work. And then other times when you feel you really weren't present, and then you see it and somehow it works. So there's a mystery, there's a strange collaboration that takes place with everybody.
You never know what a movie is going to look like when you're shooting it and you just hope it's going to look like it's supposed to be.
What I love about the theater is that you know who you're acting for: your audience. And the thing I find really hard in film is, you don't. The audience is invisible. And we're sitting there, hoping there's other people out there.
