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

The research period of a film is the most exciting part of the process, and filming is sometimes a letdown because when you're dealing with biopic material, the real thing is always much more intricate than the story told in the film.

There are so many factors that go into how you feel, as a performer, on any given movie, that it's really hard to identify which things are the things that help you be good, and which are the things that hinder you.

I don't separate Robert DeNiro's comedy from the serious stuff. The one thing I realize working with him in all of his work, is that he doesn't do anything unless something happens to him in scenes - unless something happens to make him react. He never came in with a set idea of how he was going to do it, he never came in with guns blazing. He would just show up and wait to see what happened.

With the movies, you do your preparation on your own. It's much more internalized and ... the actual performance is a kind of, just trying to capture one moment at a time, for the first time.

I live right under the Hollywood sign, so that every day when I drive home I'm reminded of why I'm here.

For a long time a lot of people thought I'm British, because I'd done so many roles with English accents. People probably still think it. Or they don't think anything.