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Actor Vincent D'Onofrio reflects on his obscure but satisfying career on the fringes of Hollywood
By Jean Oppenheimer
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THE last thing Vincent D'Onofrio wants to be is a celebrity. A respected character actor with a startlingly diverse filmography--the fat, homicidal recruit in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket; the handsome, lovesick fisherman in Mystic Pizza; the angry screenwriter stalking Tim Robbins in The Player--he worries that the more moviegoers know about his offscreen life, the harder it will be for them to buy into his on-screen characters. His latest creation is Tony "Ole" Olezniak, a blind ex-football star who hooks up with a paraplegic (Gregory Hines) and enters a white-water rafting competition. The film, now playing in New York City and scheduled for an April release elsewhere, is called Good Luck, and like most of the movies D'Onofrio graces, it's a small, character-driven independent. 
In person, the thirty-seven-year-old D'Onofrio is a commanding presence. Six-foot three-inches tall, with enormous hands and feet and a head full of curly dark hair, he emits an almost palpable intensity. That same sense of conflict and unease--of active but contained emotion--colors his best performances. Last year, D'Onofrio won top acting honors at the Seattle Film Festival for his portrayal of fiery pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard in The Whole Wide World. Set in Texas in the 1930s, the film chronicles the real-life romance between Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian, and a young, aspiring writer named Novalyne Price Ellis (played by Renee Zellweger).
Not all of D'Onofrio's films are as well received as The Whole Wide World, Full Metal Jacket, and The Player. Last year also saw him star as a dimwitted Mob accountant in Feeling Minnesota, an altogether forgettable Keanu Reeves flop. But the success or failure of his movies aside, his desire to make a career of unconventional roles is notable. Though he's earned the kind of respect in the industry that could bring him "big" Hollywood jobs, D'Onofrio has opted to continue doing his own thing. "I made a choice when I was young not to go for the mainstream stuff and to do a more eclectic kind of route," says D'Onofrio. Mr. Showbiz sat down with the actor recently and found out where that road has taken him.
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