Steve Buscemi: (To Andy, the previous guest) I had a whole French maid thing happening and you had to blow it.

Conan: So sad for all of us.

S: Can I be wearing the cologne? (the urine cologne Andy was wearing)

Andy: Thank you. Yeah, they all wear it.

C: We were talking out here about kids. You have kids.

S: I have the kid.

C: "A" kid.

S: Yes.

C: How old?

S: Nine.

C: Does he see your movies? You can't see Reservoir Dogs.

S: No. He doesn't know I'm an actor. He doesn't know what I do. He's always asking me if he can see anything that I'm in. The only thing that I was ever able to take him to was Big Daddy, but he was really interested in Hooters.

C: The chain, Hooters.

S: The Hooters chain.

C: Right, right. You took him.

S: No. I had to convince him that's just in a movie - they don't really have those - what are you kidding me? - have women who dressed like that in a diner, you know.

C: It's a great restaurant.

S: I've never been there.

C: The food is better than you'd think.

S: Really?


C: Let's move on. Well, let's talk so we get stuff from Hooters. Now this movie The Animal Factory - this is an interesting movie 'cause it's actually shot in a prison.

S: Shot in a really prison, a non-active prison but it was real - I mean not in use anymore. We brought in real convicts from a neighboring prison to use as extras.

C: What's wrong with just "extras"? Why would you have to - "No, I need real prisoners here"

S: I don't know. I think it's-

C: A bad idea.

Andy: Because you gotta pay extras.

C: These are people who were brought in chains. They were getting told to act. Did you do any - you know, actors always coming on the show and say I did "research" for my role. Did you do any research for this movie?

S: I wasn't prepared to spend a night in prison. It's hard for me to do research - a lot of my roles I play a lot of psychopath. I'm supposed to stalk somebody or something.


C: It's a good excuse if you are caught. "I'm an actor!"

S: But I remember I read a lot. Eddie Bunker, who wrote the film as an ex-convict - he played Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs, and that's how I first met him. But he was in San Quentin for about twenty years, and he brought us all there on this little field trip. I talked to a lot of convicts. I even had one who asked what we were doing, and I said we are shooting a film. The day that we were shooting the film was the day that he was gonna be released. And he asked me if he could be in the film, and I said, "OK. When you get out - give me your number." And he wrote it down on a piece of paper, and when I got home and I looked at it: it was his cell number.

C: That's how he was identified - who he was, how to get hold of him. Did you have any trouble with any of the prisoners?

S: They were really great. But sometimes they didn't take it seriously. Like when we were shooting this big riot scene and they are being chased by the riot police - we had all these cameras set up and they were running.

But they were laughing. To them it was fun. Pushing each other, high-fiving. You know, I tried to be very patient.

C: Yeah, be patient with the prisoners, I would think. What did you do? You didn't yell at anybody at one point, did you?

S: No. But at one point I got so upset with one guy who was laughing and joking around, doing one of the scenes, a dialogue scene. And we were rolling and he starts talking, and I run up to him and grab his arm and said, "Shut up! Doing the scene over here."

And I walked away from him and I went like "What did I just do?"

C: Right. The guy is in for cutting someone's head off and filling it in with sour cream.

S: Please and Thank You at the end, you know.

C: Don't mess with me - I'm an actor!

S: But they took it very seriously.

C: Did they like the pace? How did the prisoners respond to the pace of making a movie and the whole process? It is easy for them? Did they like it?

S: No. I think they found it - maybe they are used to it 'cause this is a lot of waiting around. It's boring. Their biggest complain was they had to get up earlier in the morning than they usually get up. But they really got into it. I remember there were two guy that we had in the background. Being the background, doing the scene, Willem enters -

C: Willem Dafoe?

S: Willem Dafoe who is the lead in the film who's amazing. We didn't like it visually so we just split these guys up. You stand here, you stand here. And we're just about rolling the one and the guy comes up to me and he says, "I'm not standing with my buddy anymore."

I said, "I know we just wanna _" then he says, "That ruins my scene!" I have something going on there with him.

C: One thing I just want to bring up really quick before we went. I wanted to talk about this last time: A lot people had odd jobs before they made it to the big time. You used to sell newspapers at a tollbooth. I am always wondering - you see those people that stands there near a tollbooth and sell stuff like - they sometimes sell roses, sometimes they sell fruit. You used to stand there.

S: The Tribal Bridge. I had to - not to go to college and go straight into the business world. What a great place to start. I was selling the New York Times in the truck lane.

C: Not a lot of call for, huh?

S: You know, I mean I was good. I sold some papers and I actually had one woman who stopped, pulled out the window. She didn't want the paper, she just wanted to tell me that I should quit my job because it was dangerous for my health, and I never forgot that. Isn't that -

C: That's sweet that someone took time to do that. She didn't offer you an another job or better job?


S: No. It was my mother.

C: Nicely done. Animal Factory opens next Friday. Looks like a pretty fascinating movie. Steve Buscemi, thanks for making time for us. Good to have you.

S: Thanks so much.