Tony Kaye has come a long way since Jeff Stark and Paul Arden catapulted his directing career into the stratosphere of commercial production back in 1987, handing Kaye a British Rail commercial from their then creative surroundings of Saatchi's in London.

"I took all the money that they gave me, spent every penny on the shoot and didn't keep any cash for myself," says Kaye, who then went on to further sharpen his directing career in commercials in addition to American History X. "Since then I've had a mixture of great success, enormous adulation and hit rock-bottom a couple of times along the way."

Kaye is more relaxed these days, auditioning for small acting gigs as well as starting an upcoming tour with his band TKO. "I'm a director but it's great to experience what an actor experiences," says Kaye. "It's fantastic and exhilarating just to be someone else. I was just up against Joe Pesci for the part of a mentally retarded man in an upcoming Penn movie. I'm totally up for being cast in commercials, so if there's a need for an eccentric-looking, 48-year-old man I'm totally game. For example, I know that I can do a mentally retarded man, a director of porn or a failing, aging rock star." Rock on, Tony!