Imagination is the most powerful tool you have. You learn it from all the greats. The Star Wars films are secretive. Anything J.J. Abrams does is secretive. Those guys haven't done too poorly.
I think it's a big chance to take to make a movie that's about as something as pure and honest and something people can relate to everyday.
I'm a huge classics fan. I love Ernest Hemingway and J.D. Salinger. I'm that guy who rereads a book before I read newer stuff, which is probably not all that progressive, and it's not really going to make me a better reader. I'm like, 'Oh, my God, you should read To Kill a Mockingbird.
I used to make fun of my friends who had BlackBerries. And I know that the expression CrackBerry has been going around, but now I fully understand it. I'm actually addicted to a piece of machinery, and that's really embarrassing
Most of the people I know who work out seriously do so because they have such an amazing outlook on life. To be who I want to be, I'm going to work out to be more positive, more active. It's proactive.
I fell in love with the book [ Brief Interviews with Hideous Men] and always wanted to do something with and fought to get the rights, which was pretty fun and an incredible experience in itself.
I think one of the coolest things about the job is the level of trust we have for each other. The actors fully trust that the writers will write amazing episodes, and the writers trust that the actors will follow their instincts with the characters
My favorite water cooler topic is fantasy football. I used to make fun of friends for doing it and now I'm obsessed.
I think there's a part of us that would like to use the fact that we're married, but you don't want the idea that we're married to overshadow the project itself.We're just looking for something that's so specific and good that it becomes a part of the story of why we did it rather than when we go to do press it's, 'Oh, my God, you're married and that's the only thing we want to talk about.' If we can merge both, that could be great.
I'm happy to announce to the world that I'm a crier. It doesn't take a lot for me to cry at stuff.
Keeping it real is the key and I don't know how they've done that week after week. I think the key is that everybody can sort of empathize with [The Office].
Let's be honest, you and I have probably seen a whole lot of family films - you have to do something special. Jim Strouse has the ability to write this hairpin turn between emotion and comedy that is very real. In real life, you don't have time to prepare for the bad stuff and you don't have time to prepare for the good stuff, it just sort of happens.
We were looking to collaborate with someone on both those fronts [ writing and directing] and it ended up just being me [in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men]. So, at this point, it's the epitome of a passion project and I just hope people like it.
To be that big of a star and that grounded and that classy, I'm mean [ George Clooney] was a true mentor for me and, as a director, he's incredible.
[George Clooney] knows exactly what he wants and so he knows that you've done a good job before you do.
After three takes, [George Clooney] is like, 'We got it,' and I'm still thinking, 'I'm just getting used to this. I shouldn't have done it in a Russian accent.' No, he's great. He's a good guy.
To be an actor and a director, I actually felt it helped me tremendously to be in the scenes of The Hollars, because as you can see, they're very intimate, very intense scenes. You don't want to break the actor's character and you don't want to break their momentum, so as the actor, I tried not to call cut as much as I could, and almost make it feel like a play, just set this environment where these amazing actors could do what they wanted to do.
That was okay [ working with George Clooney]. One of these days I'll work with a good director.
There are always roles that seem enticing that you can't do because of scheduling.
[The Office] is incredible. It's slightly overwhelming because you don't think that anything you do....having anybody enjoy what you do is such a treat and so I know I've said this a hundred times but we owe it all to our writers.
We have the best writers in the business [on The Office].
I love this script [The Hollars] because I'm lucky enough to come from a really tightknit family.
Ninety percent of your job is done if you find the right cast.
I related so much to the responsibility of being a parent, the responsibility of "did you screw your kid up," the responsibility of letting your own parents down.
Now all of us in our thirties are the first generation that get to say, "I don't know how I feel about that system, I don't know if I want kids, I don't know if I want to get married."
