Directing is too hard, it takes too much time, and it doesn’t pay very well.
I don’t do stunts – I do running, jumping and falling down. After 25 years I know exactly what I’m doing.
I believe that the racial injustice which existed such a short time ago probably would have persisted longer if the color barrier had not been broken in baseball.
I try to preserve a certain amount of time away from the movies, so I don’t allow time to do those smaller parts that might give me an opportunity to do more seemingly ‘artful’ things. Although, having said that, I don’t feel any lack of noble purpose if I do a film that’s commercial.
I think people only have so much interest in anybody, and if you barrage them in between the times you have something to offer them you become a personality rather than an actor – much more short-lived. I only work once a year. And that’s enough.
I was 35 when I first hit with Star Wars. I had some degree of maturity and some degree of experience, yet physically I still looked young. That had been an impediment early on in my career, but then it turned out to be an advantage.
In relationships with a directors, I want to be able to give and take, and I can’t name what it is: respect, energy, investment in the task, focus, humor, intelligence, but I always feel responsible for taking the money.
There’s no independent satisfaction without the success of the film itself. The feel that you have done the best you can to support the film.
I think parenting is a huge responsibility. It was in my time when I was growing up and there still continues to be that responsibility.
When I met scientists, I found them to be as various as any other group of people.
What I think is important for a young person is to figure out how to be useful and not be so concentrated on themselves, but to see what they can do to make the overall collaboration with all the other people involved in a movie work better.
I didn’t play much ball. I wasn’t much of a ball fan.
I’ve never been bothered by proximity to special effects and I’ve never felt disadvantaged by them. They’re all part of a movie, and when the movie’s under control I don’t feel upstaged by them.
An actor only has his own understanding and experience to work with.
There’s a real simple analogy. You have to perceive it from the ground up. You have to lay a firm foundation, then every step becomes part of a logical process.
I was one of the few people who thought Star Wars was going to work, and I hadn’t even seen any special effects.
The job’s always the same. It involves helping to tell the story and creating an alloy between character and story that serves the film.
I had the idea that the film would be much better served by a Branch Rickey look-a-like than a Harrison Ford look-a-like. I didn’t want the audience to go into the film thinking that they knew me from some previous experience in the movies.
You have to remember that baseball really was the American pastime in the Forties, not football, basketball or any other sport.
I just like the process of taking something written on a sheet of paper and giving it life and shape. I like the collaborative process of filmmaking, which is all simply to say that I love my work and I would continue to look for things that have the potential to be engaging and successful.