Although Forsyth is considered a “personal actor”, he is not a fan of the term himself. “I’d rather have people say to me, ‘You’re my favorite actor.’ Not ‘the character actor.’ It’s like getting shot in the face. At least for me.” In fact, it is easy to catch him. However, Forsyth’s career includes hundreds of roles. He’s appeared in movie classics like Once Upon a Time in America, the high-budget thriller, Stronghold, but he also plays monsters from the bottom of the box with cheap blockbusters. He was great at all of them.
Forsyth was born on June 7, 1955, in New York City. He became interested in acting as a child. He went to a Catholic school and one of the teachers noticed that young William had a lot of energy that he had to channel somewhere. Worried about the boy, he persuades him to take part in the school play. The seed has been sown. As a teenager, Forsyth admired Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. Following their example, he began performing at the local theatre.
At the age of eighteen, he went to the cinema to see Mean Streets. He had no idea who directed Martin Scorsese and starred Robert De Niro. Delighted, he left the show. But there was no turning back. He started casting and soon appeared in popular TV series with small roles and small roles. Gifted with a low voice and menacing looks, he quickly became the bad guy on the small screens.
Forsyth’s acting breakthrough came with a supporting role in Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio Leone’s epic gangster thriller. “The greatest gift I’ve ever received,” he told the AV Club. He considered the movie “Once Upon a Time…” to be his favorite movie, because without it, there would be no more. “[Leone] It gave me a chance to transition from episodes of the series to the big game. I owe him a lot. He and Robert De Niro, because he kissed me, too.” He also stated that there was an energy on set that he lacked in later projects. “I was 27 and I thought: Maybe all my movies will be like this? If you’re lucky, one in 10 or 20 will be like this.”
And the actor admitted that everyone was shocked when Warner Bros. decided to edit the film. “We hated it, and worst of all, it broke Sergio’s heart. They got a European director who made beautiful films about America and what did they do? They hired a police academy editor to delete his work because they were afraid. They put together a two-hour, twenty-minute version. Which It feels like five hours because it doesn’t make sense. It’s awful.”
Throughout his career, Forsyth has starred in countless B-movies, one of which was Stone Cold (1991). Making this movie was a unique experience because the script was so bad that the actors improvised their lines on set. “The worst line ever written,” the actor laughed. “We didn’t have a script, madness. I saw Lance Henriksen recently and we were laughing because… I don’t know if there was a line in the script that we said on camera. We scripted everything.” The lines are spot on and maybe that’s why it’s a cult movie now. I still can’t believe how many people come up to me at conferences and talk about it.
In parallel, the actor played an insane and constantly high-profile gangster in the movie “In Search of Justice” with Steven Seagal. “I have to say it was a great script. Almost like…it reminded me of Mean Streets. It had that quality. Well, we started shooting, and suddenly the nunchaku came and everything went…”. He also revealed a bit of collaboration with Seagal who has been known since the beginning of his career for his tough personality. “He wasn’t easy to work with. He’s tough. I think he had something in him that no one has had since John Wayne. He lost that, but it was interesting and the fans loved him for that.” […] If two of his films are good, this is one of them.”
“Part of me loved Seagal. Unfortunately, there were also bad moments. I felt like he was mad at me for doing so well – I don’t know if that makes sense. He came up to me one day and said ‘You need to work on your Brooklyn accent’.” I told him, “Trust me, you have to do it.” “I don’t think he liked it,” recalls the actor, who grew up in this part of New York. “The filming took place in places he knew well.” “I shot a guy out of place.” The one I took my girlfriend out for pizza when I was 16.”
In Things to Do in Denver When You Die, Forsyth played a member of a group of unlucky robbers who become the target of a mob enforcer after a botched robbery. “Awesome movie,” he said in an interview with “AV Club.” As he revealed, one of the characters was created with him in mind. But after reading the script, he decided he wanted to play a different character. “The guy had a great monologue, about kids, about life… It was great. I played it. Then the Weinsteins called my agent and told them that at audition shows people were crying on that stage. And the next day they cut it.” The main reason I acted in this movie went to trash.
Forsyth also appears regularly on television. And when he talked about Mane from HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” he made it no secret that it was one of his favorite entries in his career. “I love this guy, this hard-working guy, who, like so many people during lockdown, found himself in business. […] People say that it is so and so. So kill me, I think [jednej z głównych postaci]He wasn’t the bad guy in this story. They wanted to screw him up. He was just trying to get his money back, which is out of the question. […]. I loved Boardwalk Empire. I loved playing it, and I love what I achieved in it, and I bow my head to the creators. I wish every show would focus a lot on the details.”
The actor hoped to play Manny for a little longer. “[Producenci] They were kind of like, “Why don’t you join the cast,” something like that. Unfortunately, I ended up saying, “Sorry, kid, you’re jumping off the wagon.” It came at the last minute, but I accepted it.” But Forsyth made it no secret that he was delighted with his character’s final scenes. “They wrote me wonderful, beautiful material to play. I love these scenes. When Manny talks to his wife in Yiddish…it turns out he has a good love life and I really like the way we reveal that. It bothers me in modern movies that everything is served on a platter. […] The man is cruel and bad, and that’s all we know about him. The real challenge comes in a layered package. Mane was a great character and I’m glad they invited me to play her.”
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