Lately, he has been receiving high marks as a director. His 1996 film, "Trees Lounge," in which he stars as an affable, dipsomaniacal loser who drives an ice cream truck by day and blows his wages in Long Island bars by night, attracted critical praise while calling to mind Barbet Schroeder's 1987 paean to gutter life, "Barfly." And his direction of the "Finnegan's Wake" episode of "Homicide" earned him a 1999 nomination for a Director's Guild of America Award. Buscemi, 43, has since gone on to direct two episodes of acclaimed HBO drama "Oz."

His current film, "Animal Factory," based on the lean prison novel by Edward Bunker, stars Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Mickey Rourke, Seymour Cassel and Tom Arnold. After a brief run on Cinemax, it had its theatrical premiere in New York on Oct. 20 and opened in Los Angeles on Friday, with a wider release still up in the air.

This odd, staggered distribution belies the film's bravura performances, with Dafoe as a bald, savvy con in the pen for the long haul and, apparently, in love with Furlong's character Ron Decker, a new "fish" behind bars for the first time after being busted for dealing large quantities of pot. In addition, Buscemi gets startling performances from Arnold as a greasy Southern pervert and from Rourke as a muscular transvestite with long green fingernails, missing teeth and a penchant for daydreaming out loud about strolling down the Champs Elysées.

The film has drawn admiring notices from movie critics at the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor and others. I spoke to him recently about "Animal Factory" and his dual existence these days as an actor and director.

What motivated you to turn Edward Bunker's book "Animal Factory" into a film?

I've known Eddie for a while. We met on "Reservoir Dogs," and I've worked with his producing partner Danny Trejo, who's also an actor, in "Desperado" and "Con Air." Danny was the one who told me Eddie had a screenplay written from one of his books. I'm a fan of Eddie's writing, so I read the screenplay first and then the book. After reading the book, I thought I had a feel for the material -- not because of the genre but because I liked the complex relationships and characters. That's what really drew me to the story.

What was it about those characters in the prison scenario that intrigued you?

The character of Earl, which is played by Willem Dafoe, is a lot like Eddie Bunker in the way he acquired his status in prison. Not so much by being a tough guy, which he is, but by being really smart. I was interested in his survival, not just his physical survival but his emotional survival, and what he does to achieve that. Earl's smart enough to know that with this new kid Ron (Furlong), by sacrificing his physical needs, he's aiming for something much deeper. He sees something in this kid that reminds him of himself, that makes Ron different from other convicts. He wants to protect him from the rest of the population as well as from becoming like him. And he wants him to get out of there as soon as possible.

Earl does acknowledge that there's this physical attraction that he has, and if there wasn't that physical attraction, he wouldn't be helping the kid. I was interested in that struggle inside Earl. I think the longer Ron stayed in prison, the harder it would be for Earl not to act on that physical attraction.

I was struck by the sexual chemistry between Furlong and Dafoe on-screen. When you cast them, how did you know that chemistry, so important for the film's development, would occur?

I didn't really, but I just had a sense. I've known Willem for years, and I knew that he would be perfect for the role. Eddie Furlong I knew from seeing "American History X" and other films he's done, and I just felt like he would be a good matchup for Willem.

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