I start at square one with every role. If I let myself feel pressure, it would crush me. The truth is that everyone pays attention to who's number one at the box office. And none of it matters, because the only thing that really exists is the connection the audience has with a movie. Sometimes that's a palpable thing, but other times it's not. No actor has control of that. All you can control is your own passion for doing the work in the first place.
But actors with political views are a dime a dozen.
As an actor I am always waiting for my luck to run out.
I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?
If you look at romantic comedies as pieces of commerce, the audience is looking for wish fulfillment.
I was never intimidated by change. I was like an army brat who had lived all around the world.
The nature of the movies is different than it was five years ago, and they're all driven by the possibilities of CGI, which means you can make anything happen on screen that you can possibly desire.
Let's not pretend there isn't a huge industry driven by the choices made by editors and writers who decide what a story is.
My work is really a blast. When it stops being a blast, then it ain't no fun no more!
When I was growing up, everybody in charge, my parents and teachers, had all survived the war, and they talked about the war like it was the Kraken - you know, this huge beast that roamed the earth during their formative years.
The most accurate representation of how I feel is that I'm incredibly lucky to be working in this structure where people get paid millions to read the news on TV. And, yes, it is insane. And there is nothing I can say beyond acknowledging my immense good fortune, and being aware that I'm blessed, and aware that it isn't going to last forever.
The pleasure of working with somebody who's an actor is they don't waste time with stuff that doesn't matter.
What we're doing with Band of Brothers is trying to put it into human terms, so it is not just a flickering, black and white myth on a screen, it is a resonant story. I want the audience to recognize themselves in these men. They're not just mythic heroes.
Mama always had a way of explaining things so I could understand them.
There's such an advantage to being involved in the day-to-day details of each other's lives. It's a marvelous fabric to exist in.
The power of the individual is as powerful as the universe is infinite.
I don't cause riots, but I do cause confusion. People freeze when they spot me.
You cannot look up at the night sky on the Planet Earth and not wonder what it's like to be up there amongst the stars. And I always look up at the moon and see it as the single most romantic place within the cosmos.
From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It's not a miracle; we just decided to go.
This is what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination.
If you have to have a job in this world, a high-priced movie star is a pretty good gig.
The prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes the actual physical one.
I just know that every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.
Growing up in northern California has had a big influence on my love and respect for the outdoors. When I lived in Oakland, we would think nothing of driving to Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz one day and then driving to the foothills of the Sierras the next day.
I have a woman who teaches me what love is every day. Maybe that sentiment is possible to fake, but for me it's really true.
