there's there's a school of thought that says that if you fear something within reason that's
probably the very thing you need to do like that's the very thing that you should go towards and um
in in my life when i've when i've explored that i've noticed that
it was a it was a good way to live because because i ultimately enjoyed the experience that made me
afraid there are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation
that's one firearm for every 12 people on the planet the only question is
how do we arm the other 11
you know who's going to inherit the earth arms dealers because everyone else is too
busy killing each other that's the secret to survival never go to war
especially with yourself
i ended up acting by accident
i was a musician and i moved out to los angeles with my band when i was 20 years old
and then there were a couple of
that happened in the bat where the bands split up and um
i remember i was filling out job applications and then with a friend of mine who happens to
be he haven't he was an actor uh less known then than he is now nicholas cage
um and i was filling out job applications at any video stores clothing stores anything and
just to be able to pay the rent and um nick cage said uh you know why why don't
you meet my agent you know uh because i i think you're an actor i think you could be an actor
and i said look i'll meet anybody you know i'll do anything at this point
and so he sent me to his his agent eileen feldman and i met with her um she sent me to read for a
casting director named annette benson who was casting a film called the nightmare on elm street
um and uh they brought me back to read for the director wes craven and um i read for wes
craven and somehow got the job but i mean i was by no means an actor i didn't have any desire
to be an actor i was a musician uh but the fact these people were going to pay me what i found to
be a ludicrous sum of money which was uh it was kind of the sag minimum uh it was 1284 dollars
a week which i mean you know i'd never seen that kind of dough before in my life
um and so
i i suddenly you know and then i did some other couple of dumb movies because i i i
still in my mind i was a musician and this was just a way to pay the rent pay the bills live
and then suddenly i found myself on that road i had been placed on that road
as a as an actor i couldn't as a child of eight get my head around the idea that this
this being that looks so scary with a flaming skull and leathers on a motorcycle
who was in fact using the forces of evil was also good it was a very uh awakening
sort of moment for me that got my mind thinking about
complicated subject matter at a young age do you actually own a tarbosaurus skull is that true
yes yeah that is that's a true story why did why did you feel that was something you wanted to have
because that's a heck of a thing to own it's a it's a um interest that i have in natural history
and perhaps realizing some sort of again some sort of childhood dream yeah you know like most young
boys i was interested in dinosaurs and then i began to become interested in the rocks and
all the other elements that natural history provides there's no real style of acting it's
it's almost like a mixed martial art it can be whatever you wanted to be combined you can create
your own g kundo with acting don't get trapped in a style don't get trapped in naturalism and
be open to your dreams be your imagination is your most important tool
and there are ways to augment your imagination healthy ways to
augment your imagination so that you're not necessarily doing your
and being dreams are important i was talking the other night
and someone asked me a similar question or said something similar about
male female the male archetype you know in the movie that i'm here for pig you know there was
a lot of men in the movie and did you what were you trying to bring from the male standpoint i
just said i didn't see it in terms of a man i or i just saw it as a person what is person but
where the sound comes through it doesn't matter i think you could be this character i could be
maybe betty davis and all about eve i think the idea is to have it be genderless and have
people relate to it one way or the other so you don't you don't have that it's man or
woman it's it's all it's just just emotion it's just perfect it's just person you know so like
charles bronson grew up so poor that he actually had to wear his sister's dress to elementary
school that's how poor he was they had no money we had to go to school dressed in her girls clothes
and you see the result of that in his stoic strong you know once upon a time in the west performance
which is what i think you're talking about we've been he had to do everything he could
to to counter balance that which is sad if you really think about it that it was like that
it was that hardcore then growing up in the west what we were taught which is that to
or even many parts of asia even still like in japan or korea if you cry as a man you're look
it's not not everybody but a lot of people think it's weak you know that's and that's but
i've seen some great movies out of japan like coreyetta or like father like son and you see
a great looking you know strong japanese man crying in that move and just like whoa
you know and it really gets you well you know when i was six years old i used to watch the tv
you know and uh yeah i used to wonder how those little guys like like me right there how i got
into the tv how they were talking like you you know and i wanted to try to figure out ways
of getting inside that tv set so that was the first time i really wanted to be an actor yeah
you have this quote on this saying that if you hadn't been an actor you'd be dead
well you know maybe i was a little bit far fetched i uh i guess i had this
need you know to do kind of crazy things and if maybe if i hadn't become an actor i used to like
the idea of robbing banks there was a story i used to get beat up on the bustle i went i went
to a correctional school for juvenile delinquents and i wasn't a big guy i was 10 years old i got
kicked out of school because i was you know the class clown come up with pranks and whatnot fried
grasshoppers and people's egg salad sandwiches and uh i used to get beat up on the bus every day and
that then i was nicki coppola that was my name so one day i went to school and i dressed up put my
cowboy boots on put my black leather jacket on put my sunglasses on and said i was roy richards and
if you uh if you mess around with my my cousin nikki coco i'm gonna kick your ass so after
that they never screwed around with me anymore so that was really my first acting experience
one of the greatest pieces of advice i've ever gotten in my life was from my mom you know
when i was a little kid there was a kid who was bugging me you know in school and she said okay
i'm gonna tell you what to do she said the kid's bugging you he puts his hands on you you pick up
the nearest rock or whatever you can get your hands on and you lay him out
then i did
and i felt better and it worked and
so for me you know that that was a great lesson because
someone had invaded my my space invaded my being you know and i was doing something
against me that i didn't want to be done so i took control the situation and i ran with it and
i promised myself that i would continue to move forward and uh
do my best not to compromise in any way whatsoever you know
not not allow anyone to put their hands on me and affect me in that way so uh that's
the best advice i think i could give is just to keep moving forward and don't
don't give anybody things you know just keep moving forward and do what you have to do for you
you