To be wise: You take the knowledge you have gained and use it to script words together to benefit yourself and others.
For me, my rule in this industry is I've got to listen to my butterflies. So if I got butterflies, then those are the scripts I go after.
I've never ever read a script. I really must read Macbeth, because I was in it once. I got a lot of laughs in that, I can tell you.
I wrote a script. I actually enjoyed writing it more than acting. It's about the Irish rebellion of 1920, which is a fascinating period and place for me.
With comedy especially, it feels like such a clear-cut thing to be a writer-director. There is so much nuance and tone in a comedy that it's hard to contextualise it in a script.
My stories are pretty simplistic, but the characters are always complex and always right, and that comes from the script and my research and reverse-engineering what I find in the real world.
It was also wonderful to have the prospect of playing with Jack Nicholson. It was a terrific part, a terrific script, with Alexander Payne and Jack Nicholson. You can't get any better than that!
Many times, when a director reads a script and wants somebody who says 'Far out', then they let me do what I want with it and that's usually more interesting for an actor.
If I want to kiss, I shall kiss. If I am told that a lovemaking scene is integral to the script, I will consider it.
I never really do much research before signing a film. It is just the script and character that I concentrate on.
That's the thing about the script, is that how these people were affected by their decision, and how it could ultimately kill them, and I mean literally.
I like it when a script shows you something new, and you can learn something through the journey of a film rather than being told things you already know.
When I do a horror or a fantasy film it all boils down to something in the script that surprises me. It could be a big thing or a small moment. If it's there I'll do it.
I read as many scripts as I can and just find stuff that I think is interesting, find stories that I think are worth telling.
When you are working on a script, the story itself is not difficult. You say this would happen and then this, resulting perhaps in this. And the dialogue you make as true as you can.
I definitely script things out. I definitely write things down and try to write jokes. Often, they're terrible. I often write terrible, terrible jokes.
Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.
My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it.
Writing is a hard gig, and it's hard to convey a lot. That's why scripts tend to be a little bit overwritten.
I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.
Twitter is so short, it's safe. I don't want my bosses to be like, 'Hey, your script is due and we saw you wrote four blog pages.'
