Adelaide-born actor Anthony LaPaglia has said he has never spent more than four hours resenting a role he did not get, Tony Soprano included. He made the remarks in an interview about his memoir The Life We Choose, which will be published on 27 October.

'It's never personal'

LaPaglia said that when he loses a part, he moves on. 'There's no point,' he said. 'It's for your own mental health. Once it's gone, it's gone.'

He said a rejection is rarely about the actor. A director may already have enough actors of a certain type, or may have a different image in mind. LaPaglia said he dislikes it when an offer is still open with another actor while his name is being considered. 'That is a waste of my time,' he said.

Stage and screen

LaPaglia praised Allison Janney and Alison Whyte, who played the lead female roles opposite him in Arthur Miller's plays on Broadway and in Adelaide. 'That's the thing about Arthur Miller's plays: the women are the glue,' he said. 'Without them, you have no play.'

He described Lantana as the role that has meant the most to him personally. He said he did not want to change a word of Andrew Bovell's script, and that the film was shot almost exactly as written. To prepare for playing a Sydney police detective, he spent time with two officers who were later found guilty of misconduct.

Working on network television

LaPaglia reflected on his time on Without a Trace, when networks produced 24 to 26 episodes a season. He said the workload made it hard to do good work. He wrote two episodes himself and said the experience gave him a new respect for writers. He also said that, looking back, the show would have succeeded whether or not he had been involved in quality control. 'I wish I'd known that when I started,' he said.

Plans and opinions

LaPaglia said he is now 'a gun for hire' and has found self-financing difficult. He said he has lost money on his own productions, mostly Australian films, and described the financing process as hard.

He also said he is 'pretty sure' he will move to Mexico soon, adding that the decision is more about the political climate in the US than anything else. He said he prefers California to New York and that his daughter lives in New York.

Asked about John Landis, with whom he clashed, LaPaglia said he did not consider him a nemesis and that he could not work with shouting on a set. 'I just can't respond to screaming,' he said.