[When asked about what he attributes his success to] Hard work. You gotta' study, man. It's like any profession. I did eight years in theater. I studied two years in school in New York with Stella Adler, the best teacher in the world. I studied under Nina Foch, I did theater, I learned my craft. You got to learn how to build a character, there's a way to do it. Everything I ever did was different. I did 125 films, and over 100 television shows, and you've never seen the same character twice. I think now, in my fifties, with Duvall, Finney, and Hackman, those guys are getting up there in their sixties, it's my time. And, I'm making sure that I push myself into their slot. So, my best work's coming. (August 1999) "Red Heat. I told Walter Hill I'll do a walk-on for you, or a starring role, I don't care. He made me a film actor. He's said fine, now you're a film a factor in Southern Comfort, and it was one of the best roles I ever had. I told Walter, I'll do anything you want, just tell me. In Red Heat I had one good scene. I played this guy like a white Negro, 'Snitch'. So I processed the hair, wore those shoes, I made him like a real street guy. Walter Hill, he loves it." "Three months in Detroit, which was where we were. Murder City. I was really sick, I was doing a lot of drugs, but I told Sam Raimi, put me on, but don't say cut...let me go. He did and I went and basically I had the show. At that point, which came after Blade Runner, they put me on a blacklist, because I wouldn't be in the union, and when I came up for that, they said you can't do the movie. They said 'We've got to have Brion James'. They said "No, he's not working for us." Finally, they said 'Look, he's the only guy we want'. They said 'Fine you can have him, but we're not paying our part'. So, they paid they're part I worked like ten weeks and twenty-five hundred. You know they say, don't make waves, so I learned my lesson. - On what he remembers about making Sam Raimi's Crimewave. "Total Recall came out a week before Another 48 Hours that summer, it made twenty-five million. The studio panicked. My stuff was in there until one week before the film opened. They cut twenty-five minutes out of that movie, a week before it opened. It went from around 140 to down around 95 minutes. They said cut all the behavior, action, comedy, done. I lost every major scene I had. That's the last time I ever cared about a movie because I went to the press screening and it was like getting kicked in the stomach, seeing what's not there. I'm the third lead and I looked like a dressed extra. All the stuff that they had in the set-up, stuff in the trailer, all those scenes were gone." - On his part in Another 48 Hours being seriously cut down.