I don’t care if people perceive me as always selling out because I’m doing a studio picture. For me, the whole thing is you should be diverse in your choices; that’s the beauty of being an actor, you should be able to do that.
I come from a long line of teachers. Not only did I not go into the family business; I had an aborted law career and I played in bands. ‘Disco Pigs’ was my first professional acting experience.
I’ve always felt kind of safe on stage, protected. I’ve talked to other performers about this and they feel the same things, particularly in the live arena. I never get nervous going on stage to do a play. Doing film or television I’ll have more butterflies.
I like being at home with my music and my books. I’ve done all the partying, I’ve done enough partying for four or five people as a young fella. But now I like the quiet life.
I think if you play characters, it’s very important not to ever tag them with any sort of disorder, or diagnose them, or whatever. You have to normalize the behavior to get inside the character.
I’m interested in pressure, I’m interested in duress. All the great works of art, or film or literature, in my opinion, have elements of those in them.
I think audiences are a lot more intelligent than what we give them credit for and understand that an actor is playing a role and that doesn’t mean he can’t play different types of roles.
And once you’re unafraid with death, I think your capacity for violence is immediately increased. Once you’re unafraid of death, you are a very, very dangerous adversary.
I think any actor that says ‘I never watch my films’ is a liar because you have to watch it at least once and also you’re going to watch it when you’re doing your ADR.
