Anthony LaPaglia on lost roles, Lantana and his memoir: 'I move on'

Anthony LaPaglia says he has never spent more than four hours grieving a lost role — not even Tony Soprano. The Australian actor, promoting his memoir The Life We Choose, published 27 October by HarperCollins, told the Guardian: "There is not a role that I didn't get that I ever gave more than four hours of grievance to. When I don't get something, I move on. Because there's no point. I'm very pragmatic that way. It's for your own mental health. Once it's gone, it's gone."

What does LaPaglia say about losing roles?

Rejection is never personal, he argues. "It can be as simple as the director has already got three brunettes or three male actors and they don't need a fourth." Sometimes a role is already out to another actor. "That is one thing I wish they wouldn't do, because that's a waste of my time," he said. "If you've got an offer out to Ben Affleck or whoever, don't put me on the revolving wheel of possibility. Because if I find out, I'm not doing it. Not that they care!"

His dream cast: Allison Janney, Kerry Armstrong, Alison Whyte — plus, after watching Moneyball, Brad Pitt, an actor he says he had not previously taken seriously.

How did he survive 24-episode network television?

LaPaglia starred in seven seasons of network drama at an intensity that has vanished — 24, 25 or 26 episodes a year. He calls the workload on Without a Trace "counterproductive to doing good work". "I would find myself acting on autopilot," he said, describing how he'd rewrite lines between takes with writers hovering at his chair. "It was like being schizophrenic." Writing two episodes himself changed his view of the writers' craft: "Oh god, I need to go and apologise to some of these guys!" His conclusion: the show would have succeeded whether he intervened or not. "So annoying. I wish I'd known that when I started."

Which role meant the most?

Lantana, the 2001 Australian drama. "From the minute that I read it, I was in love with it," he said. Andrew Bovell's script was shot essentially as written — "that's very rare". To prepare as a Sydney detective, he shadowed two real detectives who were themselves under investigation and were eventually found guilty. "They were the funniest guys, though." In Leichhardt, nobody let them pay for a meal.

He also credits Arthur Miller's women: "The women are the glue," he said of A View from the Bridge, citing Janney and Whyte in Death of a Salesman. "Without them, you have no play." Adelaide audiences, he adds, laughed hardest of all — "there's a dark streak in Adelaide, which I appreciated."

Why is he planning to leave the United States?

LaPaglia, 67, says he is "pretty sure" he will move to Mexico, chiefly to "ride out Trump", predicting "significant outbreaks of civil unrest" and claiming Trump "won't let an election happen". Asked about a nemesis, he names no one — though director John Landis, with whom he clashed, remains a puzzle: "He screams a lot and that bothers me... I'm just waiting for the lawsuit."

His best advice remains Spencer Tracy's: "Know your lines and don't hit the furniture." With no wishlist — "I'm a gun for hire" — LaPaglia says he will take any role written for a 67-year-old. There are, he notes, not many.