Michael Madsen

“I worked a lot of non-acting jobs for a really long time. They ranged from auto mechanic to landscaper to manual labor to working in a factory that made airplane parts. I even tried to go to school as a paramedic and ended up being an orderly in a hospital.”

“I do get cast in the same role a lot, but the truth is, I just want longevity. The thing is, I'd rather be stuck in a stereotype than be nowhere. The whole typecasting thing started because of 'Reservoir Dogs.' And I did a bunch of other films like 'Wyatt Earp' and 'Free Willy,' but no one seems to remember those.”

“Your children don't have to fear you to respect you.”

“My big ambition was to be Richard Petty.”

“I can't surf, so I swim. It's the best workout I've ever known because it works your entire body.”

“I probably made a few pictures I shouldn't have done, but I have four sons and I have to pay the rent. If you have a decision to make about whether or not you can buy groceries at the market or whether or not you're going to make a bad movie, you're going to make a bad movie.”

“I'm a leading man trapped in a bad guy's body.”

“I'm kind of hard to double, but I did have one guy for a while as my double. I kind of like to do my own stunts, though, because it's just the overall experience. Sometimes you have to step aside when the stuff gets really dangerous, but I feel like sometimes you have to do your own stunts to make the role seem real.”

“You know, every movie you make can't be great, no matter who you are.”

“What people don't always understand is that I established a certain lifestyle for my family back in the days of 'Species' and 'Mulholland Falls' and 'The Getaway.' I wasn't about to move my six kids into a trailer park. So when people offered me work, it wasn't always the best, but I had to buy groceries, and I had to put gas in the car.”

“My career has been very strange. My career is like a heart monitor. I get involved in a good project now and then to keep things going. And then I make things that I work on that I hope are going to be good so I can make a living and keep a roof over the heads of those little monsters I have in my house.”

“You get these horrifying straight-to-video things for very little money, then you go to the Cannes Film Festival, and they got some poster of you, 40 ft. high, in the worst movie in the world.”

“I don't walk around the street thinking, 'I'm Michael Madsen,' but then again, I am that guy, and sometimes people do take notice of me. Sometimes it's really not comfortable.”