As a kid I decided that a Canadian accent doesn’t sound tough. I thought guys should sound like Marlon Brando. So now I have a phony accent that I can’t shake, so it’s not phony anymore.
I loved growing up in Canada. It’s a great place to grow up, because – well, at least where I grew up – it’s very multicultural. There’s also good health care and a good education system.
On his character Dean in Blue Valentine: It’s sad, because he just doesn’t have any ambition outside of loving his wife and his daughter, which should be enough but doesn’t seem to be enough in this case.
You can’t make a movie for everybody. You can’t go into it trying to alienate people, but you have to assume that you’re going to.
The theme for me is love and the lack of it. We all want that and we don’t know how to get it, and everything we do is some kind of attempt to capture it for ourselves.
I don’t know, I just got a feeling about her. You know when a song comes on and you just gotta dance?
I started reading all these men’s magazines, trying to follow all the tips: what you’re supposed to wear, what you’re supposed to have, things you’re supposed to say, and all the exercises you’re supposed to do.
I turned 30 and everyone told me I would feel different and I didn’t. So I thought I’d move to New York.
I think it’s more interesting to see people who don’t feel appropriately. I relate to that, because sometimes I don’t feel anything at all for things I’m supposed to, and other times I feel too much. It’s not always like it is in the movies.
In New York, you’re forced to deal with life; it’s there in front of you on a daily basis.
Women are mad at me. A girl came up to me on the street and she almost smacked me. Like, ‘How could you? How could you let a girl like that go?’ I feel like I want to give people hugs, they seem so sad. Rachel and I should be the ones getting hugs! Instead, we’re consoling everybody else.
It’s not good just to have life experience of film-making and that’s all. It’s hard to play a real person when you’ve been in jets and town cars for three years.
I don’t think anyone can teach you how to be a man but a woman. You only learn by learning what they need.
To watch a master work at anything is a privilege.
I don’t think you can discriminate against budgets, you know? I’m an actor, I guess, so I’m just trying to play as many characters as I can. If there’s a character I think I can play, and they’re going to let me do it, I’ll do it whether it’s $10 or $1 million or more.
I always wanted to entertain. When I was six, a scrawny, scrawny kid, Id get in my red speedo and do muscle moves. I actually thought I was muscular. I didnt know everyone was laughing at me.
You know us crazy kids. We’ll do anything crazy to our hair.
The thing that’s so exciting when you’re making a film is that it can be anything and there are no limitations on it.
I’m Canadian so American politics are not really in my wheelhouse.
In some way, the relationship between a director and an actor is personal.
I’m Canadian. I think that’s it. When you’re a Canadian, you’re always watching America from the outside, from afar.