I was raised Irish Catholic, but I don’t consider myself Irish Catholic: I consider myself me, an American.
I love these movies where it’s just about the film. You don’t have my face on the poster. It’s all about the movie. I like that.
I like the George Romero films, which were really great, social satire movies; really twisted.
I feel like I’m a filmmaker; I don’t feel I need to yell action and cut.
But no, I don’t really like romantic comedies, so I don’t really care. I never go see ’em.
I’m definitely nostalgic about the music of my youth; The Clash and Fishbone and that whole music scene. I still have all that music to this day. There was some great music going on in the late 70s and 80s.
All the choices we make in our life are pointless. There’s no escaping the inevitable.
The elderly have so much to offer. They’re our link with history.
With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you’re gonna get out of it. It’s like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you’re acting, you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy, and have the cameras rolling.
When applied to politics and taken to its extreme, kitsch is the mask of death. Fascism was all aesthetics. There was no core principle to it. There was no truth to it.
The reason bin Laden staggered the planes going into the towers was so every camera would be focused on the second tower when the plane hit. It was not only the murder, but the perpetual image of the horror that permeated into people’s consciousness.
The movies have got more corporate, they’re making fewer movies in general, and those they are making are all $200-$300m tent-pole releases that eat up all the oxygen.
If you’re a movie star, there’s a cycle you go through: adoration, adulation, you’re used, and then you’re discarded. And it happens again and again, always in that sequence.
I don’t agonize over decisions as much these days. The criteria of what’s important to me is clear. The insecurity that you feel, and the paranoia that you feel, have been around for a long time – you know it’s a liar because it’s been lying to you all along – every time you start something new.
Being on a movie set is like one long financial crisis.
I was never into the popular school or clique or anything. Then I started doing movies when I was in high school, so then I got popular. Then the girls paid attention to you who didn’t before.
The minute you realize that your options are unlimited, things just start falling into place all around you.
I don’t agonize over decisions as much these days. The criteria of what’s important to me is clear.
The situation in the film is like me going out to Venice Beach and talking to a homeless guy on the boardwalk, and 13 years later he’s the president.
I guess maybe I’m idealistic.
Every role you do is kind of a side of yourself. That’s why they give you the part.