Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta
Raymond Allen "Ray" Liottais an American actor, film producer, and voice actor. He is best known for his portrayals of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellasand Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams. For his second feature film, Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, Liotta received a Golden Globe nomination and won the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has since become a highly-regarded screen personality, appearing in leading or supporting roles in films such as Unlawful...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth18 December 1954
CityNewark, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
People have all these preconceptions about me. Whereas if you look at the roles, Henry Hill was the nicest guy in 'Goodfellas!' I was a nice guy too in the comedy 'Heartbreakers.' And I was a really sweet father to Johnny Depp in 'Blow!'
Mafia guys are all just insecure people who want their money. They're like little seven-year old kids when they don't get their way. I knew guys like that growing up in New Jersey.
No question. There's shades of the O.J. trial in this one. The difference in our movie is my guy is completely committed and does everything he can to find out who the bad guy is,
Suddenly playing the charming bad guy was my thing.
I was on a soap opera before that for three years, where I was the nicest guy on earth.
I've done a few movies where I really liked the project, but I wasn't sure about the director, and I still did it and my instinct was right, in the beginning. Even though it was a good story, the guy still didn't really know what he was doing.
I like to think that even with some of the more intense ones sometimes there is humour in there, you try to make a complete human being, whether the guy is good or bad.
I talk to my friends and, you know, they all seem to get relationships that aren't right. You kind of want someone who is not at your beck and call but loves the idea of being in a relationship and what that entails.
I think I had a kind of pause for insight in my 20s when I wasn't in a relationship and my career wasn't going the way I wanted it to go. I had time for reflection then.
I just finished Narc, which was a really heavy duty, raw, independent.
My wife read Narc as well and was really into it.
I love acting. It's an interesting challenge to make something that doesn't exist appear like it's happening, and to do it in a real way.
The independent-minded movies - it's always an uphill battle to get them made and seen. You do what you can, and go out there after and try to tell people about it, but at the end of the day, that's all you can do.
Acting is playing pretend, playing a children's game at an adult level, but with children's rules. It's fun to play bad guys. I've never been in a fight in my life, so it's fun to play something that's different.