Harvey Keitel on his latest role as infamous mobster “Lanksy”

ATLANTA - Oscar-nominated actor Harvey Keitel takes on another larger-than-life role in his latest film, the biopic "Lansky."

Written and directed by Eytan Rockaway, the film tells the story of real-life gangster Meyer Lansky, with whom Rockaway shares a unique connection.

"My father wrote a book about gangsters and interviewed Meyer Lansky before he passed away," says the filmmaker. "So, the reporter – David Stone in the movie – is loosely based on my father’s experiences and research and so I had that ‘in’ and that ‘gangster bug’ growing up and listening to his stories about gangsters."

Much of the film is set in 1980s Miami, as Keitel’s Lansky tells his life story to that down-on-his-luck journalist.  For the legendary actor, those long scenes of discussion were key to understanding the mobster in his later years.

"Here was a person who wanted to paint his memory … for his family, his children, relatives, so that they knew him in a certain way, other than the nefarious things he had done," says the actor. "He wanted to be remembered as a father [who] cared about his son, would never abandon his son."

Keitel, of course, is also a larger-than-life figure, having appeared in cinema classics including "Taxi Driver," "Bugsy," "The Piano," and "Pulp Fiction." It’s a career that began with acting training from the legendary Stella Adler, who Keitel says passed on some memorable lessons.

"This one day, a girl got up to do something — an actress who was studying — and so, she finished her scene and Stella Adler asked her, ‘Well, darling, what do you want to tell us?’ She said, ‘Well, I’m content.’  And Stella Adler shot back out at her, ‘Darling, only cows are content!’ So, I never forgot that lesson!"

"Lansky" is playing now in select theatres and on-demand.

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