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	Back to HBO Films Point of Origin Home Synopsis Cast and Crew Photos and Video Artist Interviews Message Boards
		Interview with Ray Liotta HBO How did you become involved with "Point of Origin"? RAY LIOTTA I got a call from John Herzfeld, the executive producer, who was intimately involved in the project, and he asked me to be a part of this. HBO And what sold you on the project? RAY LIOTTA It was a great, great part. I get to play two characters. It's a fascinating story. It's a true story about an arson investigator whose investigating these fires and it turns out that the arsonist is a fireman. HBO Talk a little bit about the two roles, just the process of playing two roles. RAY LIOTTA Well, it all starts with the writing, and it was very good writing. John Orr is a very die-hard, intense character who loves investigating fires. He always wanted to do it. He's very good at it, but you realize why he was good at it three-quarters through the movie. There's a method to his madness, so to speak. HBO Let's go back to the script. What was it like when you first read it? RAY LIOTTA I was fascinated by it because there's a lot of twists and turns in it. I didn't see what was coming. It was a very complicated movie because it involves me doing one thing, me doing another thing, and yet it all comes about because a manuscript that one of the characters wrote. And the way that it's all weaved together was fascinating, and what I really liked about it, what made it doubly interesting was Tom Sigel, the director, who was a DP (director of photography) before, but very high end in terms of the way he moves the camera, really was able to tell this story visually because it's- aside from the story itself, it really needs to be told in a visual way. And he was a great person to direct this. HBO The film is based on actual events... RAY LIOTTA Right. HBO It's a real story. Can you just tell me what that was like? I mean, to go through this process and these characters and realize they're real. RAY LIOTTA Well, I've been fortunate to play a few characters that are actual characters, one being with HBO called "Ratpack", now that was the most difficult because everybody new Frank Sinatra, and that caused me many a sleepless night. And also Shoeless Joe Jackson ("Field of Dreams") and Henry Hill ("Goodfellas"). This character, John Orr, nobody really knows him, so it made it a lot easier as opposed to playing Sinatra. HBO Of all the characters you've played, this one has the distinction, I guess, of being the most disturbing. He's also very charismatic. Tell us a little bit about John Orr. RAY LIOTTA Well, I don't know if charismatic is the word as much as he was very, very good at his job. And people who are passionate about what they do, there might be a charisma about them stemming from their passion from what they're doing. But yes, he was able to get away with a lot of things because of his passion for what he was doing. HBO He's also very respected. There's an element with this story that he plays on his charisma. He's invited to speak at conferences and he also reaches out to celebrities, and wanted to become famous himself. RAY LIOTTA I don't know if he wanted to be famous, and I also think the people that he prayed upon were very vulnerable people. In terms of the Keith Lang character that John Leguizamo played, I, John Orr, was his teacher and a very good teacher. He was a great teacher because it takes one to know one. So he was able to teach Keith extremely well. HBO Let's talk about the effects. The effects in this film aren't used in the traditional sense. They seem to be part of the storytelling. RAY LIOTTA Oh, it totally is part of the story, the fire. I mean, this is what this movie is about and point of origin just means if there is an arsonist who's involved, where does that fire stem from? Because these were fires set by a pyromaniac, you have to figure out where they're from and for people who are in that business, it's a puzzle that they're exhilarated about putting together. Luckily we had great special effects guys and there's a lot of safety measures and you have to wear certain types of clothing. But, they did not cheat the fire. And being in the middle of fire when it's surrounding you is extremely scary. But there's also something very seductive about fire. People sit in front of it to make love. It's a very...there's a lot of magnetism toward fire. Just staring at it. And then fire on a large scale, I had never seen it before, but what they did with this movie is incredible in terms of the fire and the scale of it. I had never been a part of it and sometimes I didn't want to be a part of it because I was right in the middle of it. It's exhilarating and it's, it's beautiful in a weird way. Or maybe I'm still in character, I don't know. HBO Get inside John Orr's mind for a minute, what was he like as a person and a professional? RAY LIOTTA As a professional he was extremely good at his job. I think maybe as a detective would want to solve a murder, arson investigators are detectives. They're trying to figure out who set the fire, how the fire was set, what's the point of origin, where did it start from. And he loved it, he loved doing it. But because of his insecurity, his insecurity made him want to figure out why things were done and because he understood why things were done, it made him very charismatic in people's minds HBO Now you had the opportunity to spend some time with a couple of the actual fire investigators who were involved in these situations. Could you talk a little bit about that? RAY LIOTTA It, it was great. And this story is really dedicated to them because they did figure out what was going on. It took them a while to figure it out and it just shows the power of the arsonist that was involved in setting these fires, that he was very good at his job and he eluded the authorities for a while. But talking with them and having them on the set was invaluable because I learned a lot of what they do, and what they go through, and it's a very complicated business. HBO Can you tell us who they were? RAY LIOTTA Mike Camello and Glen Lucero and there was Mike Matassa. They were arson investigators, and when they had a feeling that these fires were being set by a fireman, they called in the ATF. Mike Matassa was the head of this taskforce, that included Mike Camello and Glen Lucero, and they all worked together for months and months trying to figure out who this individual was and it's a painstaking task. But the eventually found out who it was and, and brought him to justice. HBO Now, John Leguizamo plays a sort of student of yours. RAY LIOTTA Keith (John's character) is somebody who wants to get into arson investigation. He's very earnest about it. John Orr, my guy, is a great teacher, really understands fires and their points of origin and is extremely well-versed at it. But, his ego also allows him to, like, he loves to teach John Orr does, and Keith is a great student. He wants to learn all about it and really looks up to John. There's a few year age difference, and because John Orr is so good at investigating the fires, Keith obviously looks up to him because John taught him a lot, you know, he's a good kid. And this happened in Glendale, where Glendale is an incorporated city within itself so they weren't part of the L.A. district. So it was a small little pond that they were involved in and John, you know, took Keith under his wing. Keith looking up to John, and looking at him as a mentor was extremely disturbing when finally things started going down with the investigators and the taskforce that I was talking about with Lucero and Matassa and, and Camello. John Orr is accused of these fires and it's devastating for Keith because here's his teacher and to have his teacher be accused of these fires, wrongly so, was just devastating for him. It would be any kind of betrayal that, that anybody could relate to whether it's a wife, a mother, a father. To be so deeply betrayed by somebody that you looked up to was extremely hard on Keith. HBO What did you do to prepare for these roles? Or let's start with John. What did you do to prepare for John? RAY LIOTTA Well, the script gave me a lot of information and I trusted the script. There was a book that John Orr wrote that gave a lot of insight in terms of how he felt an arsonist would react and act. So it was basically that and just using your imagination. HBO The acting - you know, there's a lot of really talented actors in this film. Talk a little bit about the cast. RAY LIOTTA It was a great cast. John Leguizamo was great. He was very dedicated. We almost had kind of like a, a student-teacher kind of relationship. He's very, very dedicated to the work. If he wasn't sure about something he would just plow head on and to make sure that he got it, and that we got it, and it's really exhilarating to work with an actor that's that dedicated to their craft, as well as a lot of the other actors. Illeana Douglas and Bai Ling were great. Colm Feore, Cliff Curtis. We were really fortunate about having a good cast of people. It's really exhilarating to work with people who are dedicated to a make believe situation. HBO What resonated most to you personally out of working on this film? Was there anything you really connected to emotionally? RAY LIOTTA I really appreciated the marriage between acting and camera because Tom Sigel is a DP, and some of the shots that he created in this movie were spectacular. I think as an actor sometimes you become pretty indulgent about "let me act" and "let the camera capture me". And in some instances that's a point well taken. But this was a really interesting marriage between camera and acting that he had to respect the actors and I had to respect the camera, and it was a really interesting lesson. HBO This is your second project for HBO. Tell us what it's like working for them. RAY LIOTTA You know, what's great about HBO is the structure, in terms of how they make their living if you will. You don't have to compromise much because hopefully through some of the great projects that they do it brings more people in who want to get HBO. But what they don't have to do is compromise about story. They don't have to- yeah, I guess compromise is the best word. They can tell the story that they want to tell and, and they don't have to worry about an opening weekend. Of course they have numbers and everything else to worry about, but they're able to take more chances than you can in regular movies, and because of that they're able to tell really interesting stories. As for this film, hopefully people will learn something, hopefully people will get a slice of life that might not have been told. I don't know if a studio would be able to take this type of chance. It's an interesting story that's happened, that was out there, that's real. It's unique and hopefully, maybe, somebody will learn something from it. But, hopefully, it's just entertaining. That's what it's all about. (END RAY LIOTTA INTERVIEW)		Ray Liotta John Leguizamo Newton Thomas Sigel John Herzfeld

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