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Ray of Lightning If you want to know the difference between women and men, ask the two genders about Ray Liotta. Women will talk about the tender father he played in Corrina, Corrina and the caring brother in Dominick and Eugene. They'll swoon over the dreamy baseball player that Liotta captured so well in Field of Dreams. If they have kids, they'll surely recall how much they loved him in Muppets from Space. Then they'll casually bring up his piercing blue eyes, and go on about that for a while. Men immediately smile at the mention of his name and talk about Liotta's psychotic intensity in Something Wild, his creepiness in Unlawful Entry, his sadism in Cop Land. They'll remember, fondly, his turn as a rogue agent in Hannibal. And then they'll launch into a 10-minute spiel about how great he was as mobster-turned-informer Henry Hill in GoodFellas. One thing everyone does agree on, though, is that Ray Liotta is a terrific actor whose career has taken some weird turns. One day he's hot, hot, hot, and then he does a series of dreck films that make us forget how fine he is. For instance, after GoodFellas, Liotta starred in Article 99. He followed up Corrina, Corrina with Operation Dumbo Drop, Unforgettable and Turbulence. You get the point. Liotta gets it, too. The 47-year-old actor runs his hands through his thick, gray-flecked hair and nods. "You know, I've made some mistakes, that's for sure," he says. "I came out of the box really strong and then my career took some serious dips. What happened was I'd do a film like GoodFellas and then all I'd be offered was crazies. I kept turning them down because I didn't want to get typecast. I was a schmuck, I guess." Things are looking up for Liotta once again. And this time, he swears he's going to take it as far as he can. He left his longtime agent ("He was at one of the alphabet agencies," Liotta says, "and I realized I needed someone who would work with me a little closer") and decided to go into business with his wife, actress/producer Michelle Grace. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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The first movie they produced, Narc, stars Liotta and Jason Patric as undercover agents investigating the murder of Liotta's partner. "Michelle read the script and flipped," Liotta recalls. "I'll tell you, I have this weird way of reading a script, where I'm always looking for a reason not to do it. But Michelle's got a good eye and she let me go through my machinations. This script was such a good read, and it had a great twist at the end that I didn't see coming and I could not, for the life of me, figure out a reason why I should pass on it. And then we realized we could produce it." Narc, which screened at Sundance last January, is so tight that it leaves you breathless. Liotta, who gained 20 pounds for the part ("Chinese food and beer," he says with a laugh), is his usual mesmerizing self. It's a role he was born to play--part out-of-control, part loving friend, part who-the-hell-knows-what-he's-thinking. It is sure to propel Liotta back into the limelight. The film, which was made for about $3 million, almost didn't get finished because the money kept drying up. But everyone decided to just keep working until it was in the can. Then people in the industry started asking to see it--Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, David Geffen. Everyone liked it and kept passing it on to a friend. Sherry Lansing got a copy, loved it and showed it to her husband, director William Friedkin. They gave it to Paula Wagner (Tom Cruise's partner), who adored it and gave it to Cruise. He loved it, and they both came aboard as executive producers, with Paramount releasing. Liotta can hardly contain his happiness. "Sometimes in life, all the right things come together," he says, "and Narc is one of those times for me." After Narc, he'll make his return to a big budget film with the thriller Identity, in which he costars with John Cusack and William Lee Scott. For the entire interview pick up the Dec./Jan. issuse of Movieline. PAGE 1 | 2 |