I've often gone to start a film only to find the producers surprised to discover that I'm American.

Barry Levinson is such a deceptive director, because he seems really lackadaisical. I'd never worked with him before, and I almost got the impression that he didn't really care that much because he was so laid-back. Sometimes we'd finish filming hours before the day was over, which is just unthinkable in any other film experience I've had. I couldn't believe that Barry had the passion for it.

I guess Ive always wanted to push the boundaries as an actor.

There are so many things that have to go right for a movie to be good that it's a miracle whenever one is.

People are always going to identify with what it's like living in society and have people judge you in certain ways, and how you can be strong enough to be your own person and all those good things.

Géza Röhrig is just incredible because he's not an actor, he's a Hungarian poet. He also happens to be a brilliant actor. He's totally unusual, the way he talks and thinks and operates isn't in the same language as you're used to from actors who've been in a lot of things before. It brings this completely bizarre and fresh, wonderful way of approaching everything that I love being around. Not where I'm, as a producer, having to interact with him as an artist, but as somebody who can stand back and admire what he's bringing to this thing that I've nurtured to create a stage for him.

There's something different about an indie film than a TV show that has a huge infrastructure that's in place already for you - at least financially and in terms of distribution. Whereas an indie film is just a total dare.