“A friend of my mom’s was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark, I had a couple of acting jobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followed through with it.”

Directing is monumentally complicated and it’s a function of all the time you pay to it. I think it would be great to do a movie I’m not in, I could just eat Fritos and just say, ‘yeah, it’s good!’ Some day.

Sometimes I get insecure about being a real director because I look at the great directors, and they have such command. But maybe that keeps me critical of myself. Maybe it keeps me moving forward.

People ascribe a certain kind of silliness to the movie business. Everybody feels like, “In the movies, they do crazy stuff.”

A lot of my shows in the past have been more theatrical than others, but you really get the bug for it when you direct on stage.

The best cure for a hangover is something one straight man can’t do for another straight man.

Nobody goes to a movie and watches the script. There is a lot of other stuff going on.

It wasn’t my childhood fantasy to work with Truffaut or be in obscure films. I like Midnight Run better than I like The Bicycle Thief. It was films like Die Hard and Bladerunner that made me want to be an actor.

I’ve seen high and lows. When things go well that doesn’t make me feel like some genius. Nor will I allow the next disappointment to make me feel like a complete failure.

Yes, I’m going to be the President of the United States. You know why? You think you can get chicks by being in the movies? You can really get chicks by being the President.

The thing about online gambling is that it’s never away, it’s always accessible. And so, if you have an issue with gambling, it’s designed to take advantage of that.

I feel like casting is the most important aspect of making movies.

People decided that I was the frat guy, even though I’ve never been inside a fraternity, or the guy who beat them up at school, even though that wasn’t me at all.

Such a senseless and tragic day. My family and I send our love to our beloved and resilient Boston.

I’m a writer. An amateur photographer. An actor.

I recognize that Hollywood is not about seniority. Often it’s not even a meritocracy. It’s about what you did yesterday. You have a couple of misses, and suddenly it’s impossible to find a hit. So the swings are gigantic. But I’ve always understood it as such, and navigated it as such.

If you think Hollywood is depressing and corrupt, politics is really depressing and corrupt — and fueled even more than Hollywood by money — if that’s possible.

“A good director is one that lets you improv,” that’s ridiculous. There’s some actors who should not be improving and there are some scripts that should not be touched. I think it’s just a case by case basis.

I operate the camera, I always do it when I’m the director, and I like to approach it as a documentary, finding the images based on what happens, as it happens.

I think a lot of good directors listen to music while they’re working. The songs just don’t become a part of the film. They’re replaced.

There are some directors, lesser in confidence or skill, who make the actor feel very uncomfortable because you feel you’re auditioning for them, every day, and that’s a terrible feeling on the set.

In the studio the director controls the actor’s every move, every inflection, every expression.

The producer, director and stars are the geniuses who get the hosannas when it’s a hit. Theirs are also the heads that are mounted on spears when it’s a flop.

My big break was becoming the spokesperson for Texas Instruments. Casting directors really started giving me a chance to read for projects.

[Fifty Shades Darker director] James Foley directed Fear. And that’s what I love about this film, because it has a real sexy thriller element about it.