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Joseph Peter Pantoliano was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and spent his childhood in the rough and tumble public housing projects.  He suffers from dyslexia, which made school work difficult and also made him the target of bullying.

The story goes that after seeing Joe's performance in a high school play, his stepfather encouraged him to pursue an acting career.  Later, Joe moved to Manhattan where he studied acting and waited tables until he landed his first major role in a touring production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Four years later Joe moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a character actor in television and theater. Then, in 1983 he landed the part as the unforgettable killer pimp in Risky Business, opposite Tom Cruise.

Since that time, Pantoliano has appeared in hundreds of productions and is know as one of the hardest working actors in film and television.  From his Emmy-winning role in The Sopranos, to The Matrix, The Goonies, The Fugitive, U.S. Marshalls, Bound and - one of my favorite films – Momento, Pantoliano has embraced them all with a passion and authenticity that  has earned him high praise from his fellow actors.

Questions from the interview:

1.  I thought long and hard about how to start today's program - and in talking to my son, I realized that many of us might not realize just how deep the stigma against mental illness goes.  So I thought we could open the show with having you tell us about the contract waiver you had to sign, which said that you would be responsible for any production delays which resulted from your depression. Do I have that right?

Pantoliano - Yeah, once I was diagnosed - for me, to discover that what was going on inside of me wasn't my fault - I thought it was a result of character defaults in myself. When I found out it it was a medical condition that had treatment available, I was stigmatized or ashamed at all, I was relieved....

2. Throughout history, mental illnesses have been associated with many creative geniuses and great leaders...  so we seem to have a double standard when it comes to illnesses associated with the brain.  We have a tendency to romanticize these diseases when it comes to Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, Earnest Hemmingway and Van Gough.  Why do you suppose we make folklore out of mental illness?

Pantoliano - I don't think people know that. I don't think people understand the benefits of having ADHD, that these are gifts. I only recently found out I had it because my kid was diagnosed with it. If you read "Delivered from Distraction," you find out that your brain style is more in tune with the creative options. I don't see any of this stuff as learning deficits, I see them as learning differences, and if you listen to Sir Ken Robinson, talking about how education is being handed out, it hasn't changed since the industrial revolution...

Want to here more? Click here for the recorded audio version of the interview.