"The mask can be a limitation, but you just deal with it. You do get superhuman strength and pumpkin bombs and all this other stuff to express yourself with.'"
"The worst thing is to get involved with people who aren't passionate about what they're doing."
"Weirdness is not my game. I'm just a square boy from Wisconsin."
"I'm one of those people who when I go over a bridge, I want to jump. It's just this intense tickle in the back of my throat. It's like I'm on the verge the whole time I'm walking over that bridge, and I'm not going to get a release until I jump."
"Film is fragmented and gets into lots of other people's hands. There are a lot of pleasures that theatre gives me. You get to perform uninterrupted."
"I'll never be able to really see a film that I'm in."
"One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else's shoes. And when I look at the roles I've played, I'm kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I've had and the different things I've learned."
"I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself, 'Man, you were so honest - can't you have some fun? Can't you do some really down and dirty lying?' But the puritan in me thinks that if I tell a lie, I'll be punished."
"I don't think people want to see me as a regular guy; besides, I'm a regular guy in real life. I guess I just want to be reckless in my work."
"Any actor who tells you that he makes choices, absolutely, is wrong. You find work and work finds you."
"All the time, as an actor, you want to be asking what's next and where things are going. If you're not asking those questions, you're not growing."
"There's a real wisdom to not saying a thing."
"Let's hope I never end up on a deserted island, because I could never make a decision on which three CDs to take with me."
"Turn off the sound in a movie, and if you can tell what's going on, the movie should work."
"Celebrity is okay as long as you know it's not about you."
"I'm no different to anyone else; I want people to like me. I just don't particularly want them to understand me."
"I try to do as many of my own stunts as possible. If you keep on taking yourself out of the role you play, you lose the thread of the character."
"The Midwest isn't somewhere you mix with those from the performing arts. But my mum and dad would go off to Chicago every so often to see shows. They would bring back the albums and the movies, those little eight metres, and we would all watch. I think that was when I fell in love with acting."
"I do want to be in mainstream movies that are going to be seen. I suppose it satisfies the showbiz side of me."
"My dad was a surgeon, my mom a nurse, and they were always out working. I had five sisters and a brother. They didn't care what I got up to."
"When I give over to somebody's vision rather than have an idea of what I need to do, it takes me to places I wouldn't have got to by myself. I'm always attracted to a strong director."
"The best thing an actor can be is ready. Be flexible, be ready."
"When I was a kid I was very interested in the idea of the will, finding out what you're capable of. I liked those kind of challenges."
"A lot of critics are lazy. They don't want to look closely and analyze something for what it is. They take a quick first impression and then rush to compare it to something they've seen before."
"Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to."
