I’d love to remain a secret and still work, but I also want people to see the movies I’m in and get a higher profile because of that. I like to think that as long as you continue choosing diverse roles, you can avoid becoming predictable.
I have this theory that, depending on your attitude, your life doesn’t have to become this ridiculous charade that it seems so many people end up living.
All I’ve ever ended up with in terms of achievements is the movie, some really stupid anecdotes, a bunch of crosswords that I didn’t finish and maybe some old bicycle that I found lying around on set.
It’s about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along. That’s partly because I found myself getting typecast, as everyone does unless they pursue roles that are very different from what they’ve done before.
There are occasions when I’ve pretended to be in a firefight, and then there are people who have really been in a firefight. Clearly it’s absolutely ridiculous, and even disrespectful, to suggest that I understand what that is.
And being as I’m somebody who loves movies like The Machinist, I also love going along to big mass entertainment movies. I get in the mood for all kinds of movies, and so I like to try each of them.
I always leave that for other people to decide, because some of the things I consider to be disasters are some people’s favorite movies. And that’s what I like so much, is that you never know. Something intrigues somebody and means nothing to somebody else.
I’ll find myself having dinner with people and someone will mention something and I will say I was in that situation once. Then I’ll say, forget it, it was a scene I was in. That can get to be quite confusing.
It’s very easy to leave when things go wrong, but to stick around and to basically give life to a town because of everything that it gave you generation after generation after generation, that to me is what defines a true American.
