Celebrated actor Steve Buscemi spent four years as a firefighter with the New York City Fire Department before becoming an actor full-time. And while acting has made him a household name, the lessons he learned as a firefighter and his ongoing efforts to help firefighters is his passion, as he tells Tracy Smith in an interview for CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD to be broadcast Sept. 7, 2014 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS television Network.
Buscemi joined the FDNY in 1980 and was assigned to Engine 55 in lower Manhattan. The star of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" highlights the work of firefighters and the struggles they face in a new documentary he's produced and appears in called "A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY." "Firefighters are great at helping others," Buscemi tells Smith. "They're great at helping each other. But they're not always - you know, they don't always know that they, themselves, are in need, you know? Their first reaction would be, 'Oh, the next guy has it worse, you know? It was nothing, you know, that I went through. It wasn't just that bad. But that guy? Oh, that family, you know? They had it worse. So what right do I have to seek any kind of help?'" Raised on Long Island, N.Y., Buscemi (who, by the way, pronounces his name "boo-SEMMY") always wanted to be an actor, but was pushed by his father to take a civil service exam. He took the firefighter test and worked at Engine 55, auditioning for acting roles in his spare time. He gave up firefighting four years later to pursue acting full-time. His fellow firefighters thought he was crazy because "nobody leaves this job," Buscemi says. "You just don't - you don't leave - first of all, a great job like this, and then a secure job."Follow CBS Sunday Morning on Twitter and Facebook.
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