You don't really audition for Hamlet; Hamlet is one of those roles that a director or producer decides you should do it.
As an actor and director, you have to take risks, even though I don't like saying that word. You can make a mistake.
Casting directors now just see me as the hard-core sniper or prison guard.
A lot of solo directors have a really strong creative producer with them. Jay and I have less of a need for that because we have each other.
I don't need to work right away. I'd rather wait for something really good; to be excited about a role, or a director, or a project.
I love animals. With animals you never know what you're getting. Everybody says don't mess with animals and little kids in movies but those are the funniest things because you can't be in control. I like to lose control as a director.
Scripts are what matter. If you get the foundations right and then you get the right ingredients on top, you stand a shot. . . but if you get those foundations wrong, then you absolutely don't stand a shot. It's very rare-almost never-that a good film gets made from a bad screenplay.
I'm a little older and I'm gonna do a bunch more movies and then they're gonna put me in a home for old directors.
When you're a director, you have great respect for directors. I am really pretty loyal to any director that I am working for and I want to help them realize whatever story and mood and tone that they're trying to realize. As an actor, you really just are a cog - you are an important cog, but you are just a piece of the machine.
In many cases for an actor it's a comfortable position to be in. But it's harder to fail as a director.
Joe Mantello is the uber director. I wrote him a card tonight saying basically, 'Will you adopt me?'
Alexander Gonzalez Inarritu is a great director. He's the one I first worked with. He's amazing.
I realized that a lot of the great directors that I admire from [Ingmar] Bergman to [Fredrico] Fellini re always shooting, then going into the editing room, and shooting again.
You can't fix a bad script after you start shooting. The problems on the page only get bigger as they move to the big screen.
I guess confidence is the only thing that I take from project to project, but I'm always open to learning everybody's style - the director, the actor I'm working with.
If the United States is to produce a nation of investors-as we must if we are to gain financial world-leadership-it is imperative that boards of directors be so constituted as to adequately represent the interests and inspire the complete confidence of investors of moderate substance.
Every film I've ever worked on, and that includes 'Braveheart' and 'Trainspotting,' I've always witnessed a director having a breakdown. Every director will have a day, without exception, where they just can't do it anymore, they don't know what to say to their cameraman, their cast. It's the sign of real, physical exhaustion.
But I did on projects that I produced, that I directed, that I acted in because it was important. I want to be a filmmaker. I dont want to be an actor who directs, I want to be a director. I want to be a filmmaker. So thats a big difference.
I get along great with directors, but I think some producers would tell you I'm a pain. They may say I'm tough to work with, but I have a great passion for what I do. I believe in fighting for it.
I'd love to direct, and I think I'd be a great director, but. . . I've been approved by the studio to direct, which I think is a cool jump of faith for them. Or proof that they're really stupid. But I don't think so.