BERLIN (AP) Steve Buscemi brought "Interview," based on a film by slain Dutch director Theo van Gogh, to the Berlin film festival Wednesday, saying it isn't intended as a political statement.
"Interview" is the first of three English-language remakes, each by different directors, of a Dutch-language trilogy by van Gogh.
Van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam, Netherlands, street in 2004 by a man angered by how the director depicted Islam in his short TV movie "Submission."
Buscemi, 49, both directed "Interview" and plays the lead role as a fading war reporter forced to interview a soap star, played by Sienna Miller, after having an argument with his editor.
Buscemi said he wasn't intending to make a political statement by doing the remake, which festival organizers said van Gogh had initially intended to do himself.
"I don't make political statements," he told reporters. "I understand it is an homage to Theo, but I couldn't have made this film if I didn't like his work."
Buscemi also dismissed a question about reports that he had received death threats.
"I did not get any death threats during the making of this film, before the film or after the film," he said.