From dolefully wistful to mildly mental, Steve Buscemi's onscreen personalities seldom stray far from eccentric.  His latest effort may be the oddest yet, as he helms what he intends to be an honest homage to a filmmaker barely known to U.S. audiences.

Buscemi, an actor whose characters [especially in films by the Coen Bros.] invariably kick the bucket before final curtain, takes the directorial baton from Theo van Gogh, the Dutch helmer assassinated by a Muslim extremist three years ago for expressing his views on what he saw as the abuse of Muslim women by Muslim men.  Far from the comically violence-prone kidnapper of his onscreen performance in Fargo or unwitting target in Paris, je t'aime, Buscemi was affable and disarmingly timid as he talked recently with Moving Pictures Magazine about his remake of van Gogh's Interview. 

Appearing at the LA Film Festival this June ahead of its theatrical release, the film follows a despondent journalist (played by Buscemi as he directs himself) assigned a puff piece about a famous actress (portrayed by Sienna Miller). The two jaded workaholics wind up spending an emotional evening together.  

Moving Pictures magazine: After Sundance, Interview still didn't have a distributor. Then you took the movie to Berlin, and shortly afterward, it was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics. How did things go for you overseas?
Steve Buscemi: I was only there for about thirty hours, but it was a great screening. All of the crew from Amsterdam [who worked on Theo van Gogh's movie in addition to the remake] came over. I got to meet Pierre [Bokma], the guy who played my part in Theo's film version. I got to hang out with him.

MPM: Are there identifiable elements of the original work present in your version?
Buscemi: Absolutely. The reason I wanted to make the film was because I loved the original, and I didn't want to stray too far from it. Part of the idea of making it was to use the original crew. We kept the camera crew and the DP, Thomas Kist. It was a nice collaboration, and fun for us to try to get inside the way Theo shot his films. He really loved actors, so he devised this method of shooting quickly, but with comprehensive coverage, using three handheld cameras at all times. The actors were always on camera. He got really long takes. He liked to shoot close-ups first, so we also tried shooting that way. It really felt good. It's the first two takes when the actors have the most spontaneity, so he would get in close first, and once he got the feed, he would shoot faster.

MPM: He was making sure the emotion was there before everything else.
Buscemi: Yeah.

MPM: The entire movie is driven by dialogue, but it's the extensive exchanges in the apartment that have a cinéma vérité feel, as though we're watching a documentary about these two characters.
Buscemi: That's how the original was shot, so it makes sense. There were very few planned shots. We mapped out where we would be in the loft. We rehearsed it for ten days prior to shooting. We wanted to make sure that we had the freedom to move about. We rarely had to hit marks. That way of working means the actors can forget about the technical aspects. They can really just play the scene.

MPM: Did you meet Theo before production?
Buscemi:I never knew him. If he had been alive, he would've been shooting the remake, because he wanted to remake three of his own films in America. That's how this came about. His American producer was looking for actor-directors [to make Interview], because Theo really loved actors.

I never felt like I was doing something that Theo wouldn't approve of. The whole idea was to make it my own. But when I asked about Theo's message, they were really forthcoming and generous about what they knew of Theo.

MPM: How do you expect American audiences will react to your version?
Buscemi: It has to stand on its own. Unfortunately, Theo's work is not widely known here. You have to be a film buff to really know his work. While [audiences] may know the backstory, they don't have anything to compare it to. I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend for the Dutch premiere. It will be a different feeling there, because a lot of the people seeing the film there will obviously have seen the original. It'll be interesting to see their reaction. Here, audiences will be seeing it fresh. It's basically about a relationship. These two people are meeting for the first time. They develop a specific relationship fairly quickly...

MPM: Or so we think.
Buscemi: Well, they do. They do become close, because I think that they're cut from the same cloth, even though my character has these preconceived notions about Sienna's character. But he finds out that she's harboring a lot of pain the same way that he has been, so he wants to get to the source of that, because he really connects with her on that level. He's also trying to get a story.

MPM: The movie raises a lot of questions about the nature of being a celebrity. Sienna Miller, herself, is no stranger to publicity. Did her star power come into consideration when you were making the movie?
Buscemi: Not really. My first criteria for whoever was going to play that role was that she would be a really good actress. Sienna certainly fit the bill in that regard. I couldn't have done the movie otherwise. Whatever else she is known for in the tabloid world was really not a concern to me.

MPM: Yeah, but who cares about tabloids? What about her familiarity as an actress?
Buscemi:Well, when I cast her, I'd seen her in two movies:  Alfie and Layer Cake. I saw Casanova after we cast her, but I was really going on Layer Cake and Alfie. Actually, on the DVD of Layer Cake, her interview was a big selling point. She was so different from the character she plays in Layer Cake. There was something really intriguing about who she was, and I wanted to bring that to the character, because with these characters, you have to like them. You really don't have a movie if you don't like them.

MPM: Is that why you cast yourself in a lead role?
Buscemi: I was interested in playing the part because it's such a great character. I wanted him to be a real person. I didn't want either of them to be clichés of journalists or starlets. All that stuff was secondary. To me, the film is less a comment on celebrity and the media, and more of an exploration of the intense relationship, and why people do destructive things when they have a connection.

MPM: I'm sure people ask you this all the time: What's it like to direct yourself?
Buscemi:It gets a little schizophrenic and exhausting. I could handle it because it was a relatively short shoot. We shot it in nine nights. I've made a lot of films, and I had a lot of people around me that I trusted. Because of the loose way that we shot it, we weren't planning a lot of shots, so I felt like I would be able to handle it. It's hard, but mostly it's tiring.

MPM: Would you ever consider transitioning into a career exclusively behind the camera?
Buscemi:I'd like to direct more, and I would be directing more if it was easier to get films made. But I'm lucky because I'm an actor, and I make a living acting, so I can be a little bit choosier about the stuff that I direct.

MPM: You've definitely played a role in helping various careers take shape. Jim Strouse, for example, wrote the screenplay for Lonesome Jim, which you directed. Then he made his first feature, Grace is Gone, which won the audience award this past year at Sundance. He told me that being on the set for Lonesome Jim was his personal film school.
Buscemi: That's really nice of him to say that. I felt the same way, right before I made Trees Lounge [Buscemi's directorial debut] working with Robert Altman as an actor in Kansas City. So yes, you try to soak up as much as you can. It was hard for Jim, because he was also our location manager. He would often have to run off and be somewhere else trying to secure our next location.

MPM: Speaking of collaborations, tell me about working with Adam Sandler on I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
Buscemi: I hadn't worked with Adam in a while, so it was nice to get the opportunity to do so. It's always a lot of laughs getting to try a lot of stuff. Adam and the director, Dennis Dugan, had worked together before [on Big Daddy], so it's a nice collaboration, all the way around. I'm looking forward to seeing that one.

MPM: Was there a lot of clowning around on the set?
Buscemi: There's always a lot of clowning around and trying different stuff out. The thing about Adam is that he has people around him who he's working with for years, that he's known since his college days. So there are a lot of people who are watching and pitching in, coming up with stuff to try. It really is a group effort.

MPM: In Delirious, you play a jaded paparazzi who takes on a disciple, played by Michael Pitt.  It's going to be distributed by Richard Abramowitz with guidance from director Tom DiCillo. How do you feel about that?
Buscemi: It's been winning all sorts of awards of festivals all over, so I really hope that people see it. I think it's one of Tom's best films. I'm pleased and proud of the work I did in it with Michael Pitt.

MPM: Plus, it's another movie that some entertainment journalists can relate to.
Buscemi:It's sort of like a sister film to Interview - at least, the media aspect. Again, with that film, too, it certainly comments on all of that. But the most interesting aspect of it was the relationship between my character and Michael Pitt's character, and how my character jeopardizes that relationship.

MPM: Would you ever self-distribute your movies?
Buscemi: It wouldn't be my first choice, but I'm glad that it's an option. I think that there are so many films out there today, and distribution gets really, really hard. Tom is one of the best independent filmmakers that we have. I'm glad that he's doing it for himself, because audiences will see it, and it'll have a life.

MPM: Now that you've remade Interview, do you ever feel like you have to answer for Theo?
Buscemi: I can only repeat the stories that I've heard about him and talk about my own perspective. I don't feel any kind of pressure to speak for him.

MPM: Would you be willing to get involved in an effort to bring his movies to a larger audience?
Buscemi: There are two other films that are going to be made: one that Stanley Tucci is directing and one that John Turturro is going to be acting in, although that hasn't been finalized. I know that the producers have talked about having all three films and the original counterparts as a collection. I feel like I'm doing my part to bring more awareness to Theo's work.