When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a good horseman, and I wanted to be able to shoot a weapon well. Exactly what that entailed, I don't know. Maybe that was the seeds of becoming an actor. Who knows? At the government school, [the teacher told us] you might as well train at one vocation or another, because your station in life is probably blue collar. Those weren't his exact words, but that was the meaning.

What was it that led you into acting?

What led me into acting was simply a matter of everything falling into place. I looked around for a new lifestyle. I found community theater. Community theater led to equity theater. Equity theater led to educational television. From that point, I made a move to do commercial television, in a nutshell.

Do you have to work at acting, or does it come naturally to you?

I think that the craft of acting is a combination of reacting as well as initiating action and dialogue. You have to believe, first of all, in your own mind, that this situation that you are portraying is real, and you go from there. Hopefully the result is that the camera sees that you are doing something very real to you as an actor.

What do you think of Joe Leaphorn?

Joe Leaphorn is an urban Indian, for one, and he is also an urban policeman. His training is all of that, and he has come to a real situation where he's going to have to make adaptations of his style of police work, as well as lifestyle. It's a bit different, rural and urban workings of police work. So that's something that Joe is working from one point to the other on.

Have you read Tony Hillerman?

I first read Tony Hillerman in the late '70s, and I believe it was this particular book, as a matter of fact. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this may have been one of the books that he hit with. It made him a very recognizable author, and he continued to write more along the same two characters.

How did you prepare for this role?

First of all, Leaphorn, he's an urban-trained policeman, and I've had the opportunity over the years to play other urban policemen. So I bring that to this part, as well as the fact that Joe is living with the fact that his wife... has cancer, so he is somewhat distracted by that. But he is well trained, and he is a professional, and he continues to do his work as he feels he should.

You're such a good bad guy. Which do you prefer, being a good guy or a bad guy?

I really don't want to label good guy/bad guy. If he's seen as a bad guy in the script, I don't care. I go with it like I'm a good guy as far as I'm concerned. Maybe everybody else thinks I'm a bad guy, but as far as in my own mind, I'm a good guy. I'm doing things that maybe everybody else considers bad, but for me there is a reason to be doing it, so the preference is moot, you know? There is no such thing.

Do you see a lot of differences between your native Cherokee culture and the Navajo culture?

A lot of differences? No. There are quite a few differences, yes, but also similarities.

Where does acting fit in on your list of priorities?

There is a lot of research to becoming an actor. I had a life other than, you know, outside of acting up until the time that I decided to make it a lifetime pursuit. But all of these other things that I did before, I did them as best as I could at the time. I continue to carve stone. I don't call myself a sculptor, because I've seen real sculptors' work. They either build, or they take away. But I call myself a carver, because I enjoy the activity of it, and I also enjoy the outcome of it. I also like to play music. I have a band. We play around in places. We are the Firecat of Discord. I see it as a bit of art by committee, but I see it also as it's a huge teamwork. Everybody has got to play for the same result.

Is this the first time that you've worked with Chris Eyre?

This is the first time I've worked with Chris. I've always wanted to, since I started. This gave us the opportunity to work together. ... Chris is one of the few Indian directors working, you know, extensively. It was only, I guess, a matter of time that we would all get to work together, because it is really quite a cast that we have. I've worked with Michael Greyeyes and a number of other people who are working this. Adam and I are working for the first time together.

What's it like to work so closely with other actors on a film and then have to leave it behind?

It's coming together and then coming apart, everyone going their own way. The first time I felt that the most severely was when I began to do plays. You know, that's the same thing: Everyone comes together, and it works, and either has a good time, a great time, or a terrible time, but it's an experience. It's an experience that is shared by all, and then on closing night, or on final wrap, everyone is gone, and then it's back to the other life. To me it starts about two weeks before a real final wrap, or maybe the last week of a play's run, and everything becomes sort of bittersweet. You love everybody, but you know that they're soon going to be gone, and you begin to start taking the ties, making them looser, and preparing yourself for that jump away.

What's the hardest part of your job?

I think the hardest part of the whole team effort is keeping up the enthusiasm, keeping up the drive to have a successful film, or whatever you're shooting.

What's your favorite part of the whole process?

I guess my favorite part... is getting this opportunity to meet new people, see old friends, and make new friends. It's all about meeting and communicating, social interaction. It makes your world smaller in a way. It also expands it. It's a great thing. Actually, my real favorite part about it is the time I have in front of the camera.

What does it feel like to be in front of the camera?

It's everything from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. You can do all of that within however long your shooting schedule is. The pits are when you have a long time off, and everybody else is working, and you're sitting back in the hotel looking for things to do. That's the pits for me.

What is it that feels so good about being in front of a camera?

That's your whole purpose for being there. It's to portray this character. You're a part of a puzzle that's being put together. It's your contribution to the larger whole. Not only that, but it's a chance to step out of your own life, which, you may or may not agree with me, but my own life, in my view, can be pretty mundane, because I know what I do. I know how I put my shoes on and how I eat my eggs. All of that, I'm very used to that. The opportunity to play a role in front of a camera and create a character is a chance to step out of that, and become something else for maybe just a brief moment.

What's the best part about Joe Leaphorn for you?

I've always liked the mental process of figuring something out, the problem solving of a situation, and finding the answers. I also like to run and carry guns and shoot and that kind of thing. It's like taking [me] back the childhood, I suppose. I do it well, so I like to do it.

Did you always do it well? The first time you stepped in front of a camera, did you feel comfortable?

The first time I stepped in front of a camera, I was so damn scared I didn't know what the hell to do. No, my first time in front of a camera where I actually saw myself afterwards, I immediately went and booked myself some acting classes.