I remember pretending to be the characters in the movies when I was a little kid.

[Warren's Beatty] first film being with this very important director [Elia Kazan], I think we related on that in a big way. And I just was genuinely curious about his experiences in film, and about the people he knew.

Each film and each character is a completely new set of challenges. It doesn't feel like you can rest on something you may have done well in the past.

I remember calling and asking, because I had a few lines that were like, "How could the character have done this?" and I hadn't read the part of the script that said what she [ Cate Blanchett] did, so they put me on the phone with Woody... Allen. I don't know if I could really say "Woody."

I got turned down for a million jobs until I got my first movie with Francis [Ford Coppola].

When you work for the Coens, they are so fun and so organized. They treat everyone with such respect. And the character I got to play was so fun.

I'd never worked with an actor-director before [Warren Beatty].