Like everyone else, I try to do quality work with great directors. But much of it has to do with luck.

Page one of the script, I launch into, "How would I feel if I were in this position?" That's an actor's job.

Every time I've made a plan in my Hollywood acting career, something else has happened, so I've gotten out of the habit of trying to predict the future.

What people actually refer to as research is really just Googling. I already have a complicated relationship with research. It used to be going to the library and looking up archival photos, etc.

After my father had seen me in five or six things, he said, Son, your mother and I really enjoyed your recent film, and I must say that you're a lot like John Wayne. And I said, How so? And he said, Well, you're exactly the same in all your roles. Now, as a modern American actor, that's not what you want to hear. But for a guy who watched John Wayne movies and grew up in Iowa, it's a sterling compliment.

What people actually refer to as research nowadays is really just Googling.

What's fascinating about acting is that you put yourself in somebody else's mind or in their shoes.