I got a chance to work with Mel Brooks on two of his films: Silent Movie and High Anxiety.

I would've been a really big silent movie star.

Apparently nobody really read it, it was a cheap movie, it fit their schedule in terms of things so fine, let the guy make that high school comedy. I used to work with Mel Brooks so they figured oh it's going to be one of those really silly movies and that's how it got made.

When you see a silent movie, you understand everything that's going on from the images because the images are so strong.

When I'm actually assembling a scene, I assemble it as a silent movie. Even if it's a dialog scene, I lip read what people are saying.

I always get compared to looking like a silent movie star - though I don't know if that's a compliment, honestly.