(He was also hit by a car when he was eight and stabbed by a stranger in a bar fight while out with the actor Vince Vaughn in 2001. “I came close to death,” he says, casually reflecting on the latter incident. “That was probably the closest I've been, besides being hit by a bus and a car.”)

Buscemi and Andres met in 1983, when they were living across the street from each other in the East Village. Buscemi had developed a crush on her from afar and would rush out to walk his dog when she was on her way to or from work, hoping to run into her. She had separately seen his face, without realizing it, on handmade posters advertising “Steve and Mark,” the experimental comedy duo Buscemi performed in with the actor Mark Boone Junior, and would joke to her friend, “I'm going to snag that guy.” Later, when Andres found herself in Buscemi's apartment, she saw one of those posters and the cosmic coincidence dawned on her. “I still remember when she went, ‘That's you,’ ” he says, smiling.