I’m very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention.
I try to make movies that I would want to go see rather than ones I would just want to do as an actor. I want people to have movies full of romance and hope and empowerment, something they can escape into and feel good about. I love happy endings.
What’s helped me is having really good friends I know I can rely on. Cameron Diaz is one of the greatest friends anyone can ever have. She has so much love to give.
It’s the worst when you’re kissing someone who’s not a good kisser, and you’re trying to make it look good, but you feel like you’re just working on your own.
I always get nervous before a kissing scene. I make sure I always brush my teeth and eat lots of fruit and nice foods rather than garlic. I’m terribly self conscious.
When I did ‘E.T.,’ it sort of solidified the only family I know are these film crews. These gypsies. These filmmakers. That was the solidification and the clicking revelations of ‘This is what I want to do with my life and this is where I’m going to survive.’
I still, at hotel rooms, I do this one sort of not-so-cool thing: continually shoving my room service tray in front of someone else’s door. Because I don’t want the remnants. I don’t want to be caught, like, being like the pig that I was at two in the morning.
