Harvey Keitel is one of those actors who seemed to remain perpetually underrated throughout a long and storied career. The gruff talent was Martin Scorsese’s first hard-edged muse in the '70s via titles like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, and was also Quentin Tarantino’s first career comeback project in the '90s with Reservoir Dogs (which Keitel also produced), From Dusk Till Dawn and Pulp Fiction. In addition to those beloved cult classics, the man also landed iconic roles in films like Cop Land, The Piano, and of course that delightfully NC-17 tale of degradation and redemption with a badge, Bad Lieutenant.

Yet despite all the classic movies he’s lent his name to, it always feels like Keitel never quite gets the respect he deserves as one of America’s finest character actors. Good ol’ Harvey rarely does interviews, but TORO got a chance to chat with the grizzled veteran about his latest film,  Canadian production A Beginners Guide to Endings.

What was it that attracted you to this project? Was there something in the script that seemed particularly enticing?

Well, I saw the same thing in Jonathan Sobol that I’ve seen in other great first time writer/directors and that is powerful writing, almost poetry. You don’t see it often and when you find it you can’t let it go.  

Do you prefer to work on smaller movies like this with a first time writer/director? I’d imagine there’s much more resourcefulness and creativity on these sorts of projects than regular Hollywood pictures.

Yeah. Here’s my list of first time writer/directors: Scorsese, Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Jimmy Toback, Paul Schrader. I have no complaints about working with first time writer/directors. As a matter of fact, I consider it to be a formula of mine for success. It’s a risk, but for me that risk is a beautiful risk to take.

You set the tone in this movie and all the other characters react to your presence as their father off screen. So, I was curious how shooting worked? Did you come first to set that tone on the set?

That’s a damn interesting question. I never met anybody in the movie, you know, because I’m never with anybody in my scenes. So, no, now that I think of it my scenes weren’t shot first because I was away shooting something else in California at the time. I was squeezed in somewhere and just shot for five days or something like that. But you’re right, the tone was set and we knew that we had to be very careful about setting that tone. It was sort of a solo trip between me and the director to find that tone. I read the script and obviously brought my own ideas about it, then used the director as a guide.

When you were preparing for the role did you consider your character Duke to be a bad guy doing terrible things to his kids or a flawed guy who made mistakes and seeks atonement?

I think Jonathan wrote a wonderful piece of theatre and the purpose of theatre is to take a look at how we behave and what we can share in terms of this journey of life that we all have to take, emotionally. Sorry, I lost track of myself for a second [laughs]. There was so much to consider about living and dying and everything in between in that role. I could do this movie over again and again and again and I’m sure I’d never mine all of its depth.

In the opening scene you’ve got a noose around your neck and you’re carrying a tree limb. It’s a hilarious image yet the tone is difficult because it could so easily be too broad or too grim. Was there much talk about how to get that balance before you started rolling the cameras?

Sure, I mean the actor interprets and the director directs and you start sharing that responsibility as soon as you’re hired because as an actor you have to make choices. You don’t sit around waiting for the director to direct you. You make choices and that’s what the director wants. If not, then you have to start playing around with it like two dance partners. Which way do you want to go? Which step do you want to try? But with this guy, it was one of the best relationships I’ve ever had with a filmmaker. He’s a very decent guy and easy to dance with. You could tell that just from the text.

When you’re working on a film with more of a lighter comedic tone like this, does it change how you approach your character at all or is the process always the same?    

Well, of course everyone always wonders about that. The fact of the matter is, who isn’t funny and who isn’t tragic? I mean, come on. In every neighbourhood we all grew up in, we all had to face some terror and some good laughs, you know? There’s no big spiel. Really, there isn’t. I mean, there might be if some character has a rigid aspect to them that will stop you from doing certain things. But in life, I hope you’ve had some laughs [chuckles]. I certainly did where I grew up. But then sometimes I caused them, by having someone else be the butt of the joke. So you know. what goes around comes around.

I found it interesting that the movie shows the underside of Niagara Falls that is very much part of the city but is never really openly discussed. Were you able to spend any time in that world? 

Yeah, I enjoyed seeing the old part of that town. It really worked on me and I could relate to that world. I felt the experience of something, like many small towns I’ve been in throughout the States. It has that small town feel to it with blocked out and forgotten structures that are quite evocative. I remember there was one run-down motel that I think Jonathan told me he lived in for part of his childhood and that was a very interesting feeling. It was places like that, that I really related to.

I have to ask, what did you think of the Nicolas Cage/Werner Herzog version of Bad Lieutenant given what an important role that was for you?

[Long pause staring me down like one of his particularly intense characters] I think every artist is entitled to fulfill any idea they have. So … [waits for the next question]

And what did you think of those rumours from a couple years ago that you might become the replacement for Steve Carrell on The Office? It seemed like such an odd and unpredictable choice.

Well, to answer you honestly, I think I would have been great for it. Would I have wanted to do it? That I don’t know. I felt like everyone else: “Where the hell did that come from?” People were calling me about it, but I never said anything and I wasn’t approached. It was never real. But when people told me about it I did some research to see how it got started and it was a producer of the show who mentioned liking some of the comedy work I had done in the past that he felt was never fully tapped. Although, I think it has been tapped in many places before, I agreed that maybe it hasn’t been done enough.

It’s funny because a few years ago one of my agents sent me a comedy series to do that I loved. I won’t say the name of it because it never got on. They did a pilot with a very famous comedy actor and it didn’t work. But, I remember getting it and thinking it was exactly the kind of comedy I could do. The producers were very excited about me playing one particular role, but the show had two brothers and I thought I could play both roles, one running an empire, one down on his luck. So I told my agent I wanted to play both parts and then I heard back that they didn’t want to see me at all. So, maybe television comedy isn’t for me [laughs]. Sorry, I took up a lot of time with that, but it’s one of my favourite stories.