My only career strategy is to just not do anything that I have to be completely ashamed of afterwards! Whether it's TV or movies, I feel lucky to be working.
It really comes down to the fact that, because I was perceived as a bad guy for leaving the show, I think people were rooting against the movies. That was really unfortunate.
Of course for many years directors have had to go on the road with their movies and promote them and I've done that since the beginning. So that's not new but the forms of it are different such as with the internet.
When I was a kid going to the movies, we'd go because Bogart was in the movie, or Cagney, or John Wayne. We didn't know what the story was about or anything.
I feel that in horror movies, especially, if you don't care about the characters, you've lost the audience. No one cares, and it becomes a process of watching people get killed.
Although charismatic, James Dean is no Harrison Ford. In the majority of his movies, sooner or later he got the crap beaten out of him.
The thing about romance and romantic movies is that they can be somewhat melodramatic. For a lot of actors, there's a certain cringe factor that's involved with that.
I usually choose movies that I would want to see. I appreciate drama and if the right script came across my desk, drama you will see.
I make two movies a year to take care of the butcher and the baker and the school fees. Then I try to write, but it's not that easy. Acting is what's easy.
Actually, I went from doing a lot of movies early on in my career, then to doing TV, and I don't know whether we'll get back to some movies or not.
I am actually a big sissy, and growing up, I never used to watch horror movies. 'Bambi' gave me nightmares.
I stopped making movies because I don't like taking my clothes off. Maybe it's realism, but in my opinion, it's utter filth.
Very often when I go in to meet for movies or pilots, I'm put on videotape. I hate the notion that that tape is going to sit on a shelf and never get better.
Before I do a movie, I watch Meryl Streep movies over and over. It's not to mimic her. It's to remind myself to be more committed.
I don't always see my movies right away. And there are some I haven't seen at all. Sometimes that bothers the directors, so I'm obliged to see them.
Mike Leigh and Ken Loach are the people I look up to. They are quality film-makers making interesting, controversial, ground-breaking movies with very little eye on the marketplace.
Right now, if you're interested in being a dramatic actor, they're not making that many just regular dramas. Movies have to have some other thing going on.
On a television show, you basically make a movie a week. Movies take three months - it's crazy. They're so slow, it's like vacation to me.
I keep telling people I'll make movies until I'm fifty and then I'll go and do something else. I'm going to be a professional gentleman of leisure.
When I was a kid I was much happier watching old movies than kids' TV, and I ended up watching all the old Ealing comedies.
There's no big budget Canadian movie. Whatever movies are big budget in Canada come from the States. Or also have States financing. Everything's pretty small.
