“I’m still a member of the Empire! Although I sometimes feel like an American with a British accent – you get contaminated after so long.”

The great thing about having been in a lot of make-up, and stuff like that, is that when you’re working with someone who’s in it, and you’ve been there and done it, but you’re not in it anymore, you feel so good.

At the Oscars, if you didn’t vote for ’12 Years a Slave’ you were a racist.

Well, I needed the work – that’s the honest answer. I haven’t worked for a while, a couple of years. So I thought it would be nice to get back to work and earn some money.

I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can’t really move from it: it’s on buses, in stores, it’s everywhere. One of my kids has read the books; the other two are too small but they like the movies.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

I know I’m pretty, but I ain’t as pretty as a couple of titties.

Each role you play, they set a bar of challenges that you meet. And in the past, I’ve played characters that emotionally expressed themselves a bit more in a physical way. It was a joy, actually.

I want my weekends off and I want to put my kids to bed. Those are good reasons to want to be in ‘Batman 2’.

On set I keep myself to myself; I’d rather the director speak up. I’m not gonna direct a younger actor. I think the power of example works best, actually.

The script is your map of the world, isn’t it? And if someone knows that if it’s well-written, you get all of the beats, it will tell you everything you need to know.

I’m rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.

You always hope that the cloak of inspiration will fall, and you’ll be O.K.

I went and lived in Chicago for a year , and I studied at the police academy.

As an actor, you people-watch, you observe. And the more famous you become, the sad thing is you lose the ability to do that. Instead of people-watching, you become the focus of attention.

Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay.

I drank for about 25 years getting over the loss of my father, and I took the anger out on myself. I did a good job at beating myself up sometimes.