Anecdotes

In 1999, his intense dedication to his craft caused him to gain 58 pounds to prepare to play a man with Down's Syndrome. The film was postponed and in the interim, he was cast in Frères d'armes (2001) where he had two months to lose the weight in order to play a 17-year-old Wild Bill Guarnere. He went through a brutal routine of fasting and running 6-8 miles a day. Just before filming, a doctor told him that he had done serious damage to his adrenal system.

A member of Teamsters local 814 in New York as a furniture mover, which he did on and off for ten years, to support his wife and child.

Committed the last murder on ''The Sopranos''.

Plays the drums and studied jazz at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachussetts

Studied with famed New York acting teacher Sonia Moore, who taught him the Stanislavski Method. He went on to become one of the youngest lifetime members of the Actor's Studio in New York after he was accepted at the age of 19.

Is a published poet and was in the same issue of the New York Quarterly as his favorite writer Charles Bukowski.

Has been a practicing Buddhist since 1990 and took precepts into the Kwan Um School (a Korean Buddhist lineage) in 2003.

Is of Irish and Italian descent.

Worked with Al Pacino and J.J. Johnston in the play American Buffalo in a staged reading at the Tiffany Theater.

Lived two blocks from the Actors Studio in Hell's Kitchen.

A major jazz fan, some of his favorite artists include Tom Waits, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash.