I think we were smoking and drinking on a street corner

and that was my first film experience.

[upbeat music]

- What exactly do you do for a living?

- Cleaner.

- You mean you're a hitman?

[gun firing]

Cool.

The Professional which came out in 1994,

it was the first film I made.

I was 11 when I started, I turned 12 while we were shooting.

It was so exciting, of course, my first time being on a set

and getting to act with incredible actors

like John Reno and Gary Oldman.

And on set too,

I think I remember the playing more than anything.

Everything felt like a game to me

and it was a really fun way to get to go in to acting.

- I own that car, I own everything you got.

- Shut up, shut up.

- You can't do it by yourself.

- Imma take you in take down right now.

It was my first audition ever.

Never did anything before that

and it was a show called Battle Dome.

I went, did a great job, went back home

and six months later I was still workin'.

Nobody called me.

There was a call back

six months after I did the first audition.

Low and behold they called me back for another call back.

I got back to this call back,

this time I try it again, I do all my stuff

and then three months later,

nine months after my first audition,

they call me in and give me the job.

It's a TV show called Battle Dome

and what it was was like American Gladiators on steroids.

It was a sports show, game show.

The contestants would come on the show

and we would basically

beat the living day lights out of 'em.

There's been nothing like it ever since

because I got sued three times.

- Lookin' for trouble?

- [Teen Boy] Shouldn't you be in bed Shuster?

- Don't think you're gonna bum any beer off of us either.

- Yeah, get your own.

- I was living in Michigan and had already discovered

my love of theater and music and acting

so I was auditioning for anything I could get my hands on

and this movie called the Polish Wedding came

and shot in Detroit with Claire Danes and Gabriel Byrne

and I was cast as Disgruntled Teenager Number One

and I was very nervous but I was also incredibly excited

and tried to keep my cool,

'cause at that time and still,

Claire Danes is just so worship worthy.

She's just such an incredible force

but I tried to play it really chill.

- Paging Mr. Alice.

- [Mr. Alice] Boy.

- First film I ever did was Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round.

I played a bell boy.

Paging Mr. Alice, paging Mr. Alice.

Those are the entirety of my lines.

No explanations required.

- You need somebody to back you up.

It's called corroborating evidence.

- Look I'm gonna go through with this.

I played a very important supportive role

as I think a cheerleader

and actually the thing I remember most about it

is that that production was the job that got me my SAG card

so I was officially in the union thanks to ABC.

Little did I know that many years later

I'd spend seven seasons on ABC doing all the things

they tell you not to do in after school specials.

[laughing]

- You don't accept any responsibility whatsoever

for your brother's death, do you?

- If you're so good at asking questions, ask Martin.

You'll get more out of him than me.

Can I go yet?

Every actor that came out of drama school

was either on the Bill or Casualty or both.

And it was kind of like

it was extended drama school for people.

It was my first time in front of a camera

and I think it probably shows.

I have that slight deer in the headlights thing, I think.

- Damn it was a dumb thing to do.

- What's goin' on out here?

- My first listed role is White Lightning.

I was I believe five at the time

and my mother was in the film along with Burt Reynolds

and other amazing cast of actors

and they had dressed me to do a background walk by

but I, because of trauma, forced myself into the movie

because I watching and a man comes toward my mother

holding a shotgun and I panicked and started running

and grabbed her leg to protect her

so it's a devastating story.

I got my start in pictures by being traumatized

and trying to protect my mother.

[laughing] You're welcome.

- Who can tell me what this is, anybody know?

- Is it a semi automatic assault weapon?

[audience laughing]

- No.

- The first time I'd ever done anything on TV

was Saturday Night Live

which feels like something people do many, many years in.

Basically I'd just moved to New York, I was doing open mics

and I met this guy who was a writer for SNL

and they needed a brown guy for a sketch

and he just contact me and he said,

"Hey, do you wanna be on Saturday Night Live?"

and I was like, "What do you mean?"

And he said, "We have a sketch and you'd have some lines,"

and I said, "Okay."

I was very, very scared.

I had three lines and one of 'em didn't go great

and so they cut that line

so then when we actually did it I had two lines.

I was extremely nervous but it went well.

That was my first credit

and then I wasn't on Saturday Night Live for 11, 12 years.

It took 11, 12 years to come back there.

[crowd yelling]

- Speak English.

- He's hurt.

- My first IMDB credit is Heaven's Gate

but that was a very particular situation.

Someone said, "You know they're making this movie

"and it's Michael Cimino."

And the Deer Hunter came out, I had seen it,

I thought it was great.

"And they're looking for ethnic faces."

The audition was you did one monologue in English

and then you did in anther language

so I had a friend of mine,

phonetically write out a speech in Dutch.

They just assumed I was fluent in Dutch

so when I got there, Cimino asks me to improvise in a scene,

talks me through the whole scene

and he says, "Okay and then Dutch."

And I'm like, "I don't speak Dutch."

"What?

"You don't speak Dutch?"

[laughing]

I was in lighting set up and someone told me a joke

and Cimino heard me laugh and he turned around

and he said, "Wilhem, step out."

And that was it, I was fired from that,

so I don't really count that as my first movie,

although if you look hard enough, you will see me.

I'm one of the cock fighters.

I fight Jeff Bridges' cock.

[gasping]

- You put me down.

Put me down.

King Kong is my first IMDB credit.

I arrived in LA

and suddenly I'm driving through the gates of MGM,

which was like my childhood studio,

that everything about MGM fascinated me

and they took one look at me

and they weren't interested at all,

completely not the type he was looking for

but since they had flown me out there,

they agreed to at least put me on camera.

I think the second AD showed up to just say, "Roll it."