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What animal best describes your personality?
A cat. I have a very bad relationship with mice.
Is your family supportive of your animal rights beliefs?
My family would be supportive if I said I wanted to be a Martian, wear only banana skins, make love to ashtrays, and eat tree bark. My mom has a good way of engaging me in a conversation about the choices I make, listening, being objective and open-minded, and respecting those choices so long as they don’t put me in danger. For a while, every meal was the third degree, but when she couldn’t refute any of the thousands of good reasons—my health, simple compassion, the health of the planet, etc., etc. —for being a vegan, she conceded and now is very conscious of what food she makes when I am around—and, I believe, when I am not around. She is lovely. My father never blinked. He is for the most part unflappable. In a good way. Live and let live—unless you are being an asshole. He will privately mock, ridicule, judge, etc. But, hey, who’s gonna cast the first stone? For people who have been through it, made changes, had curve balls thrown at them, it is easier to digest change and digest change in other people. Change only scares the small-minded. The small-minded and me. No, I’m only kidding. It only scares me—I mean, the small-minded. I think if I gave my dad a five-minute rundown on the advantages of veganism, I could convert him without too much trouble. I'll do it next time I see him. Maybe. I’m not much into the converting business, though.
Tell us about an animal you’ve known who has or had a big role in your life.
I have had many, many cats. We seem to connect well. I had a snake when I was a boy. It was given to me on my birthday. The next morning, I woke up and there was the snake in its cage along with twelve squiggling little babies. We set them all free with their mom in tall grass by the beach. I have had a turtle, a guinea pig, a dog, girlfriends, and many sweet, playful, sleepy, loving, delicious cats. I love the way cats look at me.
What do you do when you see someone being cruel to an animal?
I am not good in those situations. Sometimes I intervene. Sometimes I'll say something in passing. Sometimes I don’t say anything because I see it so often that I feel overwhelmed. I feel impotent. That is a bad feeling. I don’t know exactly what to do. My girlfriend openly shouts at people. She won’t hesitate to berate someone at the top of her lungs no matter where she is. It makes me feel like a mealyworm.
Would you ever kiss someone who eats meat?
Yes. I love animals, but I love people, and I love people who have all kinds of beliefs. We are all in this together and crusading can be a very lonely life. I have believed many things and then later discovered I was 100 percent wrong. That hasn’t made me a nihilist or even lessened my conviction in certain areas, but it has made me less willing to isolate myself because of some judgment I make about someone else—i.e., to not kiss someone because we disagree about eating animal products. I can’t make that sacrifice. I love kissing. And my mom still eats meat. We live a short while here, and I want to kiss my mother. Although I will encourage her when it’s appropriate to not eat meat. In fact, when we sit down at a table to eat, I don’t hesitate to tell her how gross eating meat seems just as often as she nags me about my driving when we are in a car together. I love it: The push and pull, the constant renegotiating of morals, ethics, what to do, how to live. ... All of us stuck here together trying to sort it all out. It’s fun. It can be, anyway.
How were you introduced to animal rights?
The first dog I had was owned by an abusive couple. He was very skittish. He wouldn’t let me hold him. It was explained to me that it was because of how he was treated. There were many incidents that influenced me over the course of my life. I mean, how does one first learn about human rights? It’s constantly evolving, and if there was some big-bang-like event, I can’t remember what it was. ... I know some people who can. I have friends who remember seeing fish hauled onto a boat’s deck and beaten to death. Right then and there they said, “That’s it. No more for me.” It was less of an epiphany for me and more of a Rubik’s-cube-like process. A girl I lived with and grew up with, a sister of sorts, in Cambridge, Mass., had an epiphany at 13 or something. We were inseparable at the time, and I used to give her incredible grief about it. She has since gone back to meat—after years and years—and I feel terrible that I may have had something to do with it.
What animal rights issues are you most passionate about?
Factory farming.
What is your favorite home-cooked vegetarian meal?
Tofu salad sandwich, seitan fajitas, penne arrabiata with olives and meatless sausage. I could fill the pages of this magazine, sister.
What’s your favorite restaurant for vegetarian food?
Candle Café in New York City is far and away the best vegan restaurant I have ever been to. The best restaurant. Period.
What’s your favorite fake meat?
Salami. I’m not that into the fake meat anymore. The familiar texture makes the transition from meat to soy and wheat products easier, but it’s kind of limiting. There are lots of great ways to prepare meatless dishes without simulating meat.
Do you have any companion animals? If so, dogs, cats? Tell us about them.
I have no pets now. However, I am in the process of starting a nonprofit organization that gives rescued animals a home in a simulated wild environment and, for those who have been tested on, who are disabled, aggressive, etc., their own space to live out their days. My girlfriend, my brother, and I are looking for people to manage this animal refuge. We have a couple hundred acres and need a vet to live on the property. We need an entire staff, as a matter of fact. It’s in its infant stage. It is hard to find people who are willing to give themselves to this kind of work. It’s a dream of ours that is close to being realized.
What do you think about people who wear fur?
Ignorant or, what’s worse, loveless.
Tell our readers the most important thing that they can do to help animals.
Be good to the ones around you, the ones you see. They need your help. They need you to butt in, to intervene, to be nosy, to be a busybody, to be confrontational with those who are abusing them. People should try eating no animal products for just ONE DAY a week. People should read Diet for a New America. I haven’t read all of it, but I have read some, and it was very informative, and I am very grateful to the person who gave it to me.
How do you incorporate animal rights into your everyday life? On the set of your movies?
In my movies, there has been little to do in the way of animal rights. I have never worked in a movie with animals. No horse-riding, no trained dogs, lions, bears. A few actors, but what could I do? We had to have them.
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