My aim was not to fool. My aim was to provoke thought and stir emotion.
I love getting ready to do a scene, and thinking about it, and talking about it. But the rest of the time, I’m so nervous and obsessed. I’m just tearing my hair out in the trailer. The whole time I’m really tense.
I moved out to LA, got an agent, started auditioning. I didn’t know anything about how it worked. And since I was really bad, luckily, I didn’t get any of those parts.
When a performance isn’t working, it’s usually because the actor is trying to do something and they’re not able to express their idea very well. It’s a muddled expression.
What is acceptable in our culture, I think, is really detrimental. I think we ought to have a little more ownership over the kind of material and the content that we put in front of people, especially young people.
Movies are collaborative, and that’s part of what makes it a great experience. They’re different from a lot of other art forms, but also it makes it seem like when you see the final product, you go, ‘I wouldn’t have done that. I wouldn’t have done this.’
A good leader needs to know how to follow.
When I was a freshman in high school, my drama teacher, an incredible, inspirational genius, the guy who got me into acting, he encouraged me to get the lead in a musical. They didn’t have any guys.
But when I start to kiss someone – lust is the easiest emotion to generate.
Great books don’t make great movies. There’s too much information in there.
Why can’t people just say they were moved? Why do they have to say it’s sappy?
When I like someone a lot, I get scared that I’ll let them down. My fear of sucking is worst when I feel like someone thinks I’m good.
My mom has a good way of engaging me in a conversation about the choices I make, listening, being objective and open-minded, and respecting those choices so long as they don’t put me in danger.
When you consider the many ways in which people have to make a living every day when they wake up, I figure that eating 20 eggs isn’t that bad.
If I can’t see the humor in it, how am I going to be funny?
People should try eating no animal products for just ONE DAY a week.
Most calves used by the dairy industry have their horns BURNED or GOUGED out of their heads.
I like to just keep the land within sight. Nowadays they can tell you if there’s a storm three days out. So it’s not much of a concern. But I’ve never been a big boat person. I don’t spend a lot of time at sea.
In my movies, there has been little to do in the way of animal rights. I have never worked in a movie with animals. No horse-riding, no trained dogs, lions, bears. A few actors, but what could I do? We had to have them.
Sometimes in the middle of a presidential campaign, there’s a political movie, and people are sick of hearing about politics, and they don’t want to see that movie. They’d rather see “Godzilla.”