Keitel Tells Anthony Mason: “I Think of Myself as a Former Marine Who Got Lucky – Really Lucky”

Actor Harvey Keitel has built a long career out of making small movie roles memorable. He’s also earned an Oscar nomination along the way. However, Keitel believes he’s never been considered “bankable,” he tells Anthony Mason in an interview for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, Dec. 15 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

Keitel, now seen in the film “The Irishman,” tells Mason, co-host of CBS THIS MORNING, that Hollywood hasn’t always seen him as “bankable” or strong enough to lead a film. And despite his acting success, Keitel doesn’t see himself as a movie star.

“I think of myself as a former Marine who got lucky. Really lucky,” Keitel says. “So I’m just grateful for the luck I’ve had, the people I’ve met, including the Marines.”

Keitel, 80, talks with Mason about his career, growing up in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, and how his first exposure to creativity came in the Marines.

The actor got his big acting break when he met Martin Scorsese, then a film student at New York University, who was casting for a student project. Keitel has since been in six Scorsese films, including “Mean Streets,” “The Irishman,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

He also shares his family’s reaction to his decision to become an actor.

“I’ll make a long story short,” Keitel says. “When I said to them I’m going to study acting, my father summed it up. He said, ‘Actor schmactor.’”

Keitel earned an Oscar nomination for his work in the 1991 film “Bugsy.” But despite the acclaim, Hollywood seemed to lose interest in him. Why?

“Gosh, if I knew that, I’d bottle it and sell it. I mean, I think they’ve lost interest in me now,” Keitel says. “Because everything is box office. Not that things don’t have to be the box office. They have to be. But not everything. And right now, it’s everything.”

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

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