A miracle is something that seems impossible but happens anyway.
The bitterest truth is better than the sweetest lie.
Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming.
My mom and my dad are ebullient people, and I think I carry that with me.
I love a sense of humor, I love intelligence, I love specificity, I love surprises. I'm inspired to get out of bed in the morning and fill my day with good things.
I've done a lot of theater work that has been quite diverse. I feel very fortunate to have had many different people think of me in many different ways. So, as an actor that's all you - all I want is diversity. So far in film and television work I have done has not been as diverse, and I hope it grows to be.
I've found in my own life, if you try to struggle against what the universe is telling you, you set yourself up for more of a battle.
The next film I have is called Miles Ahead, which is about Miles Davis, during a five-year period in his life during which he's struggling to figure out which direction to go musically and in his life. I play a record executive who's there to try to get Miles to collaborate with one of my clients. I'm excited to see that.
Andy [Hertzfeld], just by nature, is one of these straight shooters. A very moral guy, kind of an open book. Along with being brilliant and one of the original members of the Macintosh team, he has a really generous spirit.
To see those two characters [Steve Jobs and Andy Hertzfeld ] juxtaposed against each other shows an interesting dynamic of how gifted people might function differently in the world.
I love Seth Rogen's line in which he talks about how you can be both a genius and decent at the same time.
I think in regards to [Andy Hertzfeld ] relationship with Steve [Jobs]... Andy is a brilliant guy, and loves Steve with all his heart. I think he would have loved to work with him even longer. But the circumstances just weren't right for him.
I think Aaron [Sorkin] did a remarkable job of plucking Andy [Hertzfeld] out of [Steve] Jobs' story, to perhaps reflect back on Steve a sense of maybe some things that were missing in Steve's life. Andy, just by nature, is one of these straight shooters.
I was raised in a reform synagogue. I think we all bring with us a sense of when hard things happen to us, we find ourselves asking questions of why are these things happening to me at this time in my life. I think in that sense, there's a certain resonance that I carry. It's more of a spiritual resonance as opposed to particularly of Judaism.
I'm always trying to remember that kindness goes a long, long way. I think that's something that people will definitely take out of this film as well.
I had a great time working with Denis [Villeneuve] and the whole group. It was a very different kind of a part [in Story of Your Life] than I've played in a while. But I had great fun; and yes, it was really nice not to have to answer to anybody about that.
Film, for me, has been a process of learning on the job.
The key research I usually apply that allows me to understand the roles that I take on, starts with the script in front of me, and what it offers. I try to absorb as much of it as I can, in the time that I have to study it, and I like to change things up, if I have a choice in the matter... and I usually don't. I dream on it, write about and find out who the individual is, and try to bring him to life with as much human and truth as I can.
I have making a new film called Story of Your Life, directed by Denis Villeneuve, with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. Which is about aliens coming to the earth and observing us and us trying to find a way to communicate with them.
I was thrown into a community production of 'Bye Bye Birdie' or something when I was a kid. I wanted to just build the sets, but I wasn't allowed to just build the sets unless I auditioned for the play. So I auditioned for the play and was thrown into the chorus. During the course of that I fell in love with it, and I never really turned back.
It's nice to be able to challenge myself by playing real people. But at the same time it utilizes a different part of the brain to just invent new things.
[Pawn Sacrifice is] about the 1972 chess championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. I play Paul Marshall.It was a great story of a very peculiar man, another genius who's troubled and lived an interesting life. I had great fun making that.
Along with reading as much as I could about Andy, several of the real folks came in besides Andy [Hertzfeld] - Joanna Hoffman and John Sculley and Steve Wozniak all came in and spoke with us - so we had the advent of being around the real people and feeling their spirit, in talking to them about what Steve was like, what their relationship was like, and how they felt about each other.
Also to get to see over the course of time how they change, and how Andy [Hertzfeld], regardless of how he's treated, still maintains a friendship with Steve [Jobs] over the course of time. Enough to want to show up and cheer him on. It says a lot about his character, and also that he cares about Steve. Yeah, I find it moving, and I find it a lovely thing on Andy's part.
I wanted to be a cartoonist. I was one of those kids who sat around and drew in my room all the time.
