I look at modern life and I see people not taking responsibility for their lives. The temptation to blame, to find external causes to one's own issues is something that is particularly modern. I know that personally I find that sense of responsibility interesting.

I've been in plenty of situations where I thought the film would turn out one way or my performance would be looked at one way and it was an entirely different situation.

I never thought about that ever throughout the entire course of my career about choosing a specific role because it would make me seem more man-like.

There is a segment of the American population that has been excluded from the national myth, and that should be redressed.

It seems that almost every time a valuable natural resource is discovered in the world-whether it be diamonds, rubber, gold, oil, whatever-often what results is a tragedy for the country in which they are found. Making matters worse, the resulting riches from these resources rarely benefit the people of the country from which they come.

To me this movie is about what is valuable. To one person it might be a stone; to someone else, a story in a magazine; to another, it is a child. The juxtaposition of one man obsessed with finding a valuable diamond with another man risking his life to find his son is the beating heart of this film.

It's always great to do a movie that you find is entertaining, but also can give some sort of political or social message.