JARMUSCH I wrote a part for Daniel Craig, who I love. And he said, “Jim, I got 10 days, and they are yours, but that’s the only thing I have all summer.” Those were the only days when I had Adam, who I had to shoot every day. So I just took [Craig’s] character out of the script, because I didn’t want to do it at all [if he couldn’t]. I probably had too many characters anyway. But that was my only disappointment.

Directing the Undead

SEVIGNY I went to [Jarmusch’s] office and went through the script. I think he might have referred to her as kind of a scream queen. He was slightly apologetic that she wasn’t the feminist force of the movie. I was willing to play that, but I was nervous acting alongside [Driver and Murray], knowing they were doing the deadpan thing, and knowing their stature and that I had to be really dramatic in between them. I was afraid I was going to look like an idiot. But I liked the tenderness in the end between us.

JARMUSCH Adam’s very focused, and Bill loves direction.

BUSCEMI [My character’s] this racist guy. I don’t think I would do that part for just anybody, but there’s something about Jim’s work where I felt like he wouldn’t just be two-dimensional. I’m not trying to make the guy sympathetic, but I think he operates out of a place of fear.

SEVIGNY It was pretty interesting to watch [Swinton and Jarmusch] working. He was testing her, and she was having fun finding the right tone of just odd enough. They were really riffing off each other. I think she got more takes than any of us, because you could tell he just enjoyed watching her work.

JARMUSCH [For Iggy Pop’s long-dead character], I said O.K., in 1973, you were coming back from a Blue Oyster Cult concert on a motorcycle, and you had an accident and you died. Iggy’s like, “Cool, I got it.”

POP I was actually part of a triple bill at the Palladium in 1973 that was Blue Oyster Cult, Stooges and Kiss.