The oddity of my watching a family member's life packaged for the broad strokes of television was not lost on Mr. Stoltz, who has played several other real-life characters in film. He described ''the enormous amount of guilt'' he experiences as an actor when ''there is no possible way to represent all the complexities of a person's character.''....
And Mr. Stoltz expressed a judgment that touched his own craft. He equated the treatment of ''omnipotent'' jocks, members of an elite club, to that of actors.
''It seems that whatever we do is somehow beyond reproach -- murder, rape, drunk driving -- as long as we go on a TV show and apologize,'' Mr. Stoltz said. ''The whole story is representative of a much larger cult of celebrity with which western society is completely entranced.''
- Alexandra Paul
I'm anxiously awaiting ''Existenz,'' the new David Cronenberg film with Jennifer Jason Leigh. He's always so wonderfully disturbing. I haven't heard a word about this one, but even when his films don't work, they work. Then, of course, there's ''Eyes Wide Shut,'' Stanley Kubrick's film. All the talk about delays doesn't worry me; it just makes me hungrier. I mean it doesn't make me hate the cook. Mostly I'm interested because of Kubrick, but I also think Tom Cruise is generally underestimated as an actor because he's so popular. Then there's ''Instinct'' starring Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding and a lot of apes. I mean, how great does that sound?
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The new director did not know everyone in his cast. ''I read about the production in the paper,'' said Mr. Stoltz, ''and I called Tony. I've always wanted to do the play, and I've never worked with a director so enchanted by the material. The size of the theater or the salary didn't matter to me, although it did matter to my agent.'' (The Importance of Being Earnest, as Algernon)
Thompson)
Joanna Going: "Eric Stoltz."
Brendan Fehr: "The third is Eric Stoltz. I shot a TV movie called “Our Guys: Outrage in Glen Ridge” with him and it was early on in my career and there is one scene where he interrogates as to the goings on at a party where I was being questioned as to my involvement with it. We shot his side first, meaning his coverage, close-ups, etc, and he calmly asked me the questions and I answered. Now when it came time to shoot my side, he sat there for awhile before saying his first line which made me wonder what was going on and then he just blew up at me and started yelling and screaming and swearing and asking all these different questions but even though they were different questions I was able to stick to my lines and have them still make sense for me. It was so much fun. I had no idea he was going to do that and did it to obviously make me uncomfortable and stuff without me really having to “act it”. It was the purest moment I’ve experienced in acting to date."
"I'm a big believer in therapy. I'm in therapy in real life. I think anytime you can bitch and moan about your own life to someone who really doesn't care that much, and can give you an objective opinion about what you're going through, I think that's valuable."
"[The Syringa Tree] was a fantastic evening, and Kate Blumberg was astonishing. The piece is moving and funny and profound, everthing you hope the theater could be. I hope it runs for years!"
Stoltz says, as an American actor, he was used to having things his own way; and suddenly Davies comes along and tells him how to say every line. "He doesn't so much direct as conduct. He had the film in his head and we were there to serve his vision. However much it drove us mad, it also delighted us and intrigued us and fascinated us and we ended up loving him."
National Post - 2000
WHAT DO YOU LIKE/DISLIKE MOST ABOUT SHOW BUSINESS?
"I hate all the BS and I love all the BS. I enjoy hearing stories about who's sleeping with who and whose marriage is breaking up. It's fun stuff. There's also something disgusting about wanting to know. But I happen to like feeling dirty and disgusting sometimes."