I've spent my entire career on horseback or on a motorcycle. It boxes you in, the way people perceive you. I read a lot of scripts. Most of 'em go to other actors.
I no longer believe that William Shakespeare the actor from Stratford was the author of the works that have been ascribed to him.
So many of these comics are just frustrated singers or actors - they want to get a gig doing a sitcom. It's paint-by-the-numbers comedy, lame joke-telling. They're drawn to it as a career move.
The more projects you do, the more actors you meet, the more people you meet, it's harder and harder to give your heart and your complete attention or absolute sincerity to that person.
I've produced before, and sometimes it's by default. In the indie level, you can't just come to set and be like, 'Oh, I'm an actor.' You have to be willing to help out, make the project happen.
I felt sometimes too responsible as an actor because people promote violence or weird things that I don't want to be part of.
I learnt a lot about how to negotiate the camera: everyone had told me an actor doesn't really need to do anything on screen, but I realised that wasn't true. If you do nothing, it's boring.
I don't recall making a conscious decision to become an actor. I just remember winning a prize at a theatre festival when I was 17 and saying: 'Oh, that's what I have to do.'
I expect I should be more calloused by now, but I am so sensitive about not ever living up to anybody's worst idea about an actor who is well-known.
Craft comes into acting later rather than sooner. I was somebody who had to learn through a process - a natural actor doesn't need to.
I'm not entirely comfortable saying I'm an actor, because it seems like a very weird, almost dorky thing to say you are.
I got to New York when I was eighteen. I was knocking around, trying to be an actor, writer, musician, whatever happened.
We had a very energetic floor manager and he was always jumping around all over the place. The director would send down messages like, Can you tell that actor to calm down?
People are really emotionally affected by actors. And it's hard to know how to behave in a way that doesn't impose or withdraw. Because everybody wants your attention. Everywhere you go, you know?
I'm an actor, not a writer. I'd be pretty annoyed if the writers tried to come in and hang over my shoulder telling me how to act, so I don't go in and tell them how to write.
There are two schools of thought: There are those actors who explain to you that they know exactly how they're going to do the part... And then there is the other method, which is to have no method at all. This is mine.
I learn something new everyday about myself as an actor, my capabilities, how far I can stretch myself, throw out emotions I never knew I had.
I think when someone becomes an actor, people say, Aw, you could see it in him when he was little. But I think you can see that quality in every little kid.
I wrote 'Actor' all on the computer. I didn't touch any instruments until I was in the studio. So while I had all these ornate arrangements, I didn't have any songs.
I'd like to be the next Oprah financially, but I'm not a TV actor. I'm not someone with an entertainment background, I'm a cop. And I'm not afraid to go anywhere and get down and dirty.
You've got to have a sense of different audiences. I'm a kind of performer manque - I come from a long line of failed actors!
