I think the actor has a tribal role as the archetypal story teller. I think there was a time when the storyteller, the priest, the healer, were all one person in one body. That person used to weave stories at night around a small fire to keep the tribe from being terrified that sun had gone down.

Millions of children are disempowered and we need to empower them.

I'm open to any project, but my joyful projects are those through which I can say something and through which I can speak to the an audience of people in the world, and I can be that vehicle through which something can be said, I find that entirely thrilling and joyful.

Working in film, if you work with great directors, you learn that after every take you must let go. Sitting with my wife at the Academy Awards, we both let the moment just go.

As an actor there's no autonomy, unless you're prepared to risk the possibility of starving.

I always try to find something I admire about every character I play.

The many many imponderables come together when a film opens and for all sorts of reasons it may or may not succeed.