The goal for his HBO documentary is to inspire.
Before Boardwalk Empire and Fargo and the countless movies he’s been in over the years, Steve Buscemi was a New York City firefighter, believe it or not. While visiting David Letterman on the Late Show, he explained why he got into it and how long it actually took to become one. He mentioned it was at the request of his father, who was into civil services, and at the time, Steve really believed he would be doing that type of work for a bulk of his life.
Obviously, things didn’t turn out that way and fate had it’s hand.
Even though Steve was out of service for over 15 years when the attacks on 9/11 hit, he went down to his old station and met up with the firefighters on the task force now. Unfortunately, he learned that several people he worked with before had passed, but despite of the bad circumstances, it reunited him with a job he loved.
And that’s the premise for his upcoming HBO documentary A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY, airing this Monday. Through the project, he got first hand stories from firefighters and their every day heroics, as well as unreleased footage of his time on ground zero during 9/11. He wants his documentary to inspire young people to look into that line of work and those in the force now, to seek help for any injuries or grievances they might experience as a result of the job.
You can read more about Steve Buscemi’s first passion over at The Wall Street Journal.