All I'm saying is we got plenty of Texans, and people from Montana, and New Jersey, and Wyoming, or Kansas City. We got plenty of actors. So we don't need some cat from Cardiff-upon-Rosemary-upon-Thyme, or whatever the hell it is, playing people from Montana. And in the reverse, they got plenty of people from Cardiff-upon-Rosemary-upon-Thyme that they don't need our asses coming over there trying to do British accents.
The independent film business is pretty much gone. Now you can do it in a format where you actually get to develop a character over a period of time.
I think maybe I was instrumental in taking the stereotype out of the Southern actor is some ways. I would hope my legacy would be as a serious actor who told the truth and did parts based on the quality of part and not necessarily the money.
If someone is talking to you and tells you that you ought to do something, and you can tell they mean it, those are the scary people. Those are the people you want to watch out for.
I tend to like to move on. I don't sit around and dwell on things much.
My mom is such a big supporter of mine. She still is, and always was. So I got the sort of encouragement from that side of the family.
I grew up in Arkansas and that's the law. My dad was a high school basketball coach, so I was raised as a coach's son and I was a baseball player back in Arkansas, and I lived in Texas, too, so I was just surrounded by sports. So that's what I was going to do: Pitch for the St Louis Cardinals. I had no idea I was going to be an actor. So I got my collar bone broken in the Kansas City Royals training camp. And once I got hurt I started doing other things for a while.
Acting is playing - it's actually going out on a playground with the other kids and being in the game, and I need that. Writing satisfies that part of myself that longs to sit in my room and dream.
People think you have to be tortured or miserable to write, but I'm finding that I get inspired a lot more these days before I'm happy.
Marketing is the devil.
If you looked in magazines ... you never see me in those out-on-the-town pages. I'm either at home playing with the kids or I'm working.
Usually with film writing I start with characters, and set about writing their story.
When I was a teenager, I read the bible cover-to-cover, and I found the Old Testament, it's a pretty bloody history book.
All the actors I've worked with as a director over the years I really love and I thought they were all right for the part.
People a lot of times say that you know it must be hard to direct yourself. That's a myth. It's easier to direct yourself. There's no middle man, you know.
They were on the set of Bad Santa, but I tried to keep the headphones away from them. My kids have seen Sling Blade, Armageddon, Bandits and Friday Night Lights. They have not seen Monster's Ball and nor will they ever. Even when they are 60. I will leave it in my will.
Basically there are no stars anymore. The audience is the star.
Every character I play is me, always has been.
You can't knock a place where you realized your dreams.
Usually when I'm writing, I kind of know what it is before I start writing and I write stream of consciousness style.
Playing normal-looking characters really intimidatesme. I got into acting to play anyone but me.
I never expected to be a movie star. It's not that I didn't want to be, I didn't think about it. I wanted to be an actor.
I'm an actor. I'm not a performer. I'm not like a song and dance guy who can take a cane and a hat and do it. I would just you know. That's why I never did commercials.
If Michelle Pfeiffer gave Mel Gibson a vial of blood to wear around his neck in a movie you'd think it was terribly romantic, everyone would cry and they'd win awards. But in real life if someone does that they'd be considered weird.
I've really dreamed of doing television. All of us do television, coming up. But when I was coming up, television was a black hole for actors. Now, television has a certain cache. Now everybody wants to be on TV because they're doing adult dramas. If you're an actor, it's like, "Well, get me on television," because it's the only place you can do it and also make a living at it. If my kids need shoes, I better do a TV show because I damn sure don't make any money with independent films.
