Interviews are a necessary evil for actors and directors, part of the slog of promoting a movie, and while some can manage to endure the process, it seems Ray Liotta wasn’t ready to play nice when speaking with the Examiner doing his duty for “The Iceman.” Maybe he was just in a foul mood or really had to be somewhere else (we’ll get to that), but when the actor wasn’t dropping terse answers, he was weighing in on the comparative success of his recent movies.
To be fair, the questions posed by the interviewer were an endless string of the worst “What did you think of this character/What was it like working with this person” questions that even the most enthusiastic person would have difficulty getting excited for. But it did lead to a variety of amusing responses. For example: asked if he thought his character was gay in “The Iceman,” Liotta shot back “no fucking way” and when the interviewer said it was something his co-star Robert Davi had suggested, he scowled: “I think that says a lot about Robert Davi. He should stick to his character. I gotta smell Davi’s shit every time I walk into a room.”
But perhaps the most interesting response came when the conversation turned to “Killing Them Softly“: “Brad Pitt’s a hack but I don’t know why that movie didn’t do better. This movie, ‘Iceman,’ is better than a movie like, say, ‘Place In The Pines.’ [sic]”
We’ll let you debate the merits of either film on your own, but if you’re wondering if Liotta really just called Pitt a “hack,” he was joking (we think). At the end of the interview when Michael Shannon walked in, he rolled his eyes and said to the interviewer, “Michael Shannon? Good luck.” Somewhere between Ray Liotta punking the interview and just dropping stone cold truth bombs is where the middleground lies, but only Ray Liotta knows. But this closing exchange pretty much says it all.
Why do you think you’re always cast in these dark roles?
I just made a movie with the Muppets and, no, I did not kill Miss Piggy. I kissed her. But when she started with her tongue I said, “Whoa” [motions pushing her away]. This one guy, Danny Trejo, couldn’t stop talking to them. It’s like he thought they were real. [Looks down at his phone]
Are you looking for a Miss Piggy photo?
No. I’m seeing what time it is. I have to go to a movie.
And scene…..