I really want to be a part of those movies that say something good to a lot of people.
For me, the drive is storytelling. To be a part of an art that tells a story and to be a catalyst, a color in that, is very exciting.
I'm an actor because I love movies, and always have loved movies. I'm a film buff. So, getting to work with those kinds of directors and getting to tell those stories is what I want to do.
You get bummed out, and then you go, "Oh! Now I get to go buy a present for myself." That kind of helps.
I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation; it's a calling.
When I was a little kid, my parents would show me Marx Brothers films and westerns and stuff like that. Thats where all my desire to be an actor comes from and probably most of my understanding of acting comes from for sure.
Some movies, I think, present ideas of the world that just don't help people with their lives. They just present things that are fleeting or stupid. So that's what I'm careful about - making sure I'm part of something that is saying something that I think is valuable in the world of people, not necessarily in the world of art.
I buy myself a present whenever I don't get a role that I really wanted.
So many times you can't get a foot in the door unless you're already in the room.
The idea of it [Star Wars] is really exciting, but the most fun part is the actual job you get to do: the character that you get to play, the people that you work with, the day-to-day experience.
Woody Allen is kind of the one example I don't have. Because the way he works and the amount of shooting time that I did on that film, I didn't really get to know him, so he kind of stays as "Woody Allen" to me.
The last three movies I've done, I played a cowboy, then I played a soldier, and now I play Han Solo. So the little kid in me is having a real joyride.
I've had that experience many, many, times - when you don't get roles. I'd developed a good muscle for shaking it off.
I remember pretending to be the characters in the movies when I was a little kid.
[ Being director] is really reassuring to me that it's just about who is right for that role and less about if you ace the audition. It's just about getting to know people, not about who's a better actor a lot of the time. It's about who fits that particular suit, you know?
I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director.
Whenever you hear somebody else is auditioning for something, you sort of assume they're going to get it. You should try to just ignore it. I don't find it very helpful to know who else is going up for stuff, generally.
It was pretty fun [auditioning on the Millennium Falcon], because I enjoyed the material a lot. Last year I read for the directors, then came to England and did a test on the Falcon, then came back and did a couple more screen tests in Los Angeles.
I'm just excited to be a part of the movie [Star Wars]. It's always the particulars that are the most exciting.
I've always felt whatever the opposite of disillusioned is. I guess illusioned with movies and with people in movies and things like that. It's all exciting to me.
It's always been very important for me to be surrounded by people. It's never been enough for me to be successful alone. I want to be around people my own age who are also doing things I can learn from. And something Francis Ford Coppola said when we were doing the movie was, "If you learn something about people when you do dinner with them every week, you'll learn a lot more if you play softball with them every week." This is us learning what the climate is creatively among us.
That's a lot more legitimate than the retail therapy I do.
I met Scarlett [Johansson] briefly, but Josh [Brolin] and George [Clooney], in particular, were so welcoming and so inclusive and really brought me into the fold from the beginning. They were just very considerate of me, and it meant a lot [shootong Hail, Caesar!].
It feels like you're being invited into a kind of community [working with the Coen brothers].
[ Woody Allen] persona in the films are so iconic; it's like on par with Groucho Marx or something like that.
