Harvey Keitel: "I've Done No Nudity in My Career"

Harvey Keitel appears to be to all intents ... a little intense. And this interview in Premiere's March 2005 issue does nothing lighten the mood:



"Premiere: You've ... appeared completely naked onscreen.

"Harvey Keitel: I've done no nudity in my career.

"Premiere: What do you mean? Besides Bad Lieutenant, you do full-frontal nudity in The Piano and Ulysses' Gaze.

"Keitel: An actor doesn't do nude scenes. An actor plays an event and tells a story.

"Premiere: But it's still your penis that millions of people are seeing.

"Keitel: It's not about nudity, it's about revelations. So if anyone wants to discuss nudity with me they can forget about it because it's not relevant. Any of my colleagues that I know would go all the way, just the way i did. I'm no exception. I just happened to have that part at the time."

Whew. Thanks for clearing that up. I thought I was seeing penis, but what I was really watching was "revelation." Later:

"Premiere: ... You've worked with a number of directors more than once ...

"Keitel: I've been declared difficult by so many people in Hollywood. (Facetiously) I've worked with so many directors more than once because I'm so difficult to work with, you see, and they love having a difficult time with me.

"Premiere: The idea that you're difficult obviously bothers you a great deal.

"Keitel: I'm fine with my reputation. I say, 'Here's the list of people I've worked with. Show me who you've worked with.' But I have a special dislike for rumor and gossip. It is likened to murder in the Talmud. Why colleagues of mine would feed into that is a mystery to me. But I must say, I read the gossip columns when I'm taking a shit."

And that visual will haunt us for the rest of our days, fuck you very much, Harvey Keitel. Seriously though, it's not about gossip, paly boy: It's about revelation. So if anybody wants to discuss gossip with me, they can forget about it.