As you get older, you suffer fools less easily. That’s why there’s all those cranky character actors. I’m an exception. I’m a sweetheart.
Film is fragmented and gets into lots of other people’s hands. There are a lot of pleasures that theatre gives me. You get to perform uninterrupted.
I don’t have a preference between theatre and film; I like to do both. But I will say that there’s something about theatre that is more nourishing and sustaining than film ever can be.
I never act. I simply bring out the real animal that’s in me.
Any actor who tells you that he makes choices, absolutely, is wrong. You find work and work finds you.
When I was a kid I was very interested in the idea of the will, finding out what you’re capable of. I liked those kind of challenges.
The Midwest isn’t somewhere you mix with those from the performing arts. But my mum and dad would go off to Chicago every so often to see shows. They would bring back the albums and the movies, those little eight metres, and we would all watch. I think that was when I fell in love with acting.
The truth is I like the crazy ones better than the well-behaved ones normally because they tend to be the passionate ones. They never come after you if you’re holding up your end. The only thing that’s bad about an abusive director is that they bully the people they can.
I feel like it’s important to be flexible, particularly when I’m coming in late in the game and I’m connective tissue in the story. I’m not at the very center. It’s important for me to have a certain kind of flexibility and try to help people do what they need to do.
Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can’t. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth.
Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action.
I pride myself on being fairly polite on a set so it’s kind of a guilty pleasure to poke others on the set.
Weirdness is not my game. I’m just a square boy from Wisconsin.
I try to do as many of my own stunts as possible. If you keep on taking yourself out of the role you play, you lose the thread of the character.
In my experience, sometimes a movie just hits at the wrong time, gets the wrong press, or gets the wrong representation, and it gets misunderstood.
I have some sort of affinity for compulsive behavior. The most interesting stories come up from the people on the outside.
I’ve never had any close male friends. The most important relationships in my life have always been with women.
I’m no different to anyone else; I want people to like me. I just don’t particularly want them to understand me.
I think, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to be more reckless with my choices, because practically speaking, you get less careful. Your choices become more instinctive, and you feel like if you make a mistake, it won’t destroy you.
I’m a task-oriented actor. A pretender. And I try to invent my process anew each time I make a new project. So I frown on any method.