After the modest success of my first film, I found it very daunting to have to live with that kind of burden of expectations.
The blue collar milieu was something that I really understood and resonated with me and I thought was underrepresented in American cinema.
When it comes to films, people often don’t differentiate between the message of a bad central character and the message of the film itself. They are two separate things.
I start from scratch with each movie; I wipe the slate and I certainly don’t rely on some bag of acting tricks I’ve amassed over the years.
I started my career without fans.
It’s very easy to leave when things go wrong, but to stick around and to basically give life to a town because of everything that it gave you generation after generation after generation, that to me is what defines a true American.
I think it’s important when you’re acting to be as relaxed as possible even if you’re doing something intense. You’re basically in a state of dynamic relaxation.
I chose to tell a personal story. When you tell a movie like this that’s as emotionally charged as this is, it’s a risk. As one of my great cinematic heroes, Francis Coppola, would say, “If you aren’t taking the highest, greatest risk, then why are you a filmmaker?”
It’s tough to make a good movie. I think the bigger the movies are, the worse they are. A lot of big movies make a lot of money and you kind of forget about what they are and they don’t really make you think.
It’s about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along. That’s partly because I found myself getting typecast, as everyone does unless they pursue roles that are very different from what they’ve done before.
You have to treat yourself like a mushroom to some degree, in order to keep on discovering things.
It’s a wonderful thing when your trainer is actually the person you’re playing.
I quite like it when you’re working with people and you only get to know them through the scenes that you’re doing together.
I don’t get it when you get so much openness about the way movies are made, and the special effects and the behind-the-scenes stuff and all of that. I can’t help but feel like this reduces it a little bit.
It’s about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along.
I want to be able to just act and never do any interview, but I don’t have the balls to stand up to the studio and say, “I’m never doing another interview in my life!”
I have a very sissy job, where I go to work and get my hair done, and people do my makeup, and I go and say lines and people spoil me rotten. And everyone has that kind of curiosity of how far can you go, how far can you take it. I think it’s always good testing yourself.
You have to make an effort to be in an unprotected environment because everyone thinks you’re a completely incapable idiot who couldn’t possibly brush his teeth without an assistant. You have to make an effort in order to be able to actually experience the country that you’re in.
There’s nothing like boxing for getting you in shape.
I never try to guess what anyone else will take from a movie. Every movie is such a different experience for each and every person. I don’t like it when people try telling people what they should take from a movie. You should go see it with fresh eyes and see for themselves.
Any planning that I have in my career is totally accidental really.