Steve Buscemi Recalls Volunteering at Ground Zero on 9/11 and the PTSD That Followed

Buscemi said the fire captain told him he was welcome to volunteer with the company again, and that he did so for the next few days.

In an article for TIME magazine, also published Thursday, the actor recalled more of what he saw at Ground Zero.

“[I] found a place on a bucket brigade. Instead of water going up, it was rubble coming down,” the actor wrote, regarding what he saw at Ground Zero. “Once in a while a body bag was passed, though none weighed much at all. That was disturbing. The dust? It was more of a nuisance: pulverized concrete and who-knows-what that clogged a face mask, so fast you worked better without one. Somebody’d say, ‘This is probably going to kill us in 20 years.'”

Unlike scores of people who were at or near Ground Zero during and after the attacks, Buscemi said he has not experienced any lingering physical health issues.

“But definitely, post-traumatic stress, absolutely,” he told Maron. “I was only there for like, five days. But when I stopped going and sort of tried to just live my life again, it was really, really hard. I was depressed. I was anxious. I couldn’t make a simple decision. It’s still with me. It’s still, you know, like there are times when I talk about 9/11 and I feel myself and I’m just right back there. I just, I start to get choked up and I realize, ‘Ah, this is still a big part of me.'”