I'm Jewish, but my mom's Catholic, so the guilt area is covered. I have the highest expectations, along with the lowest. I tried to put as much of myself as possible in Reality Bites, but in terms of my humor, I'm still trying to figure out what my sensibility is. It's a process, really. I don't feel like I have a very clear idea of what I'm supposed to be, or even of how people perceive me, except that I got put into this Generation X file.
It's great to work with the people who make you laugh and who are funnier than I am.
It's weird that people expect me to be funny. I find it a real burden when I'm expected to be humorous on talk shows.
I actually started working on Madagascar before my daughter was born.
I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it's called bipolar manic depression. I've got a rich history of that in my family.
I would like to do more dramas when I find a good role that will allow me to politely upset people's expectations of me as a comic actor.
Nobody makes me bleed my own blood - nobody!
Paul is Starsky, and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years.
First of all, the first cut of the movie was like three and a half hours and I walked away going, 'Wow, I know there's like twenty minutes that I can cut - ' when I first saw it 'But I don't know after that.' The first time I put up then in front of people I was like, 'Oh, my God, I can take that out and that out and that out.'
I don't even want to think of myself as an actor because it's such an insecure place to go.
There's always an element of fear that you need to work a lot until people get sick and tired of you or finally figure out that you're a fraud after all!
As a kid I had dreams about being successful, thinking it would be cool. Then, when I was in my 20s, I really thought I had it much more figured out than I do now.
Well, this movie I've been working on for a while. I had the idea for the movie like twenty years ago when I was doing 'Empire of the Sun' in 1987 because at that time that's when all these Vietnam movies were being made and my friends and I were going on auditions for these Vietnam movies and my friends were getting them and going away to fake boot camps.
I love history. I'm very interested by it and I think it's great to have a movie that brings it alive in a way. It's sort of that romanticized version of it.
I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise; you want to make sure its working on the page. But I do like to have the ability to try stuff just in the moment, to give it some sort of spontaneity.
You have to stay in character in between takes.
I don't think the public is dying to see me necessarily be funny all the time.
Maybe forced retirement isn't necessary after all.
Sometimes I wondered whether I hadn't let my career get confined to one direction, but lately I've decided to accept the fact that I have this opportunity to be successful doing comedies.
It's what I wanted to do with my life. Not necessarily just direct Jim Carrey movies, but to direct and act and write and create and along the way discover what it is that I'm about.
When we were visiting New York City, I took my kids to the same playground where I went growing up. It was fun to feel that connection of having gone there as a kid and being there as a parent.
I think people will be curious to see what I can do as a dramatic actor.
I enjoy the work I do in comedies. It's a valid test of your creative abilities.
Very quickly after meeting Dustin, the whole image I had of him was shattered.
Oh, dear God, thank you, you are such a good God to us. A kind and gentle and accommodating God, and we thank You oh sweet, sweet Lord of hosts for the smörgåsbord You have so aptly laid at our table this day, and each day, by day, day by day, by day oh dear Lord three things we pray to love Thee more dearly, to see Thee more clearly, to follow Thee more nearly, day, by day, by day. Amen.
