I made the mistake of writing something very, very short about Obama for this website that I write fiction for, and my father told me never do that again. And he was right. I have nothing to add to a political conversation because it’s not my area.
I see writing and acting as different parts of the same continuum. Writing is better for intense emotion. If you’re very angry about something, you shouldn’t present it as strongly when you’re acting. But if you’re really angry and writing about it, that’s the best way to get it out and across.
As for environmentalism, I’m only an environmentalist by accident. I live in New York, so I bike, and the closest grocery store to me sells organic produce. I also shop with a book bag because I ride a bike, and it’s hard to carry the paper or plastic bags.
As an actor, you are in a unique position because you’re not only memorizing dialogue but really embodying it. You naturally feel the rhythm of good writing.
Any time you play a character for a long period of time, regardless of how close it is to you, it infiltrates your life. It’s impossible for it not to.
When you are in a live-action movie, you have so many more options to express yourself. You can use your body and your gestures and facial expressions. When you are doing an animated movie, you really only have your voice.
The ideal way to approach a character is to find something in yourself that relates in some way.
The scariest people to turn a movie over to are always the people who are drawing up the poster, because that’s the first impression it’s going to make. And very often it’s portraying a very different film from the one the actors actually did.
The movies that are really big, at least in my experience, oftentimes don’t have characters that I feel as personally connected to.
The only suggestions I get on my plays is to make them more of what they already are, and that’s wonderful.
It’s so nerve-wracking to be on a set. They’re the most stressful place in the world, because you’re making something permanent, and there are so many people relying on you in a lot of ways.
And I’m sure after Facebook it will be the little cameras that we have implanted into the palms of our hands and we’ll be debating whether we should get them, and then we’ll all get them.
Acting is a weird, kind of alienating job because you’re in an isolated place. Even if you’re working with a lot of other people, you’re kind of alienated. Actors say that a lot, and I kind of find that to be true.
Don’t be a hero, live to fight another day.
I think it’s a room full of insecure actors, which is ultimately very comforting.
Devils don’t come from hell beneath us, they come from the sky.
I personally don’t feel the need to be radical for its own sake, but I probably couldn’t if I tried anyway.
I like driving; I don’t drive since I live in New York. I don’t have an opportunity to drive, like, ever.
If you’re acting, then there’s a prescribed way to behave; whereas in life there’s no prescribed way. So acting feels like a comfortable way to get through the day.
I think I’m an abstinence symbol. If I take my shirt off, people will not have babies.