What I appreciated was the fact that the script delved into how Australians were - and still are - condescended to by the English.

I die in almost every film I've been in.

Most films I've worked on have had large casts, but they've been wonderful people. I think the monkey in Pirates of the Caribbean is the most temperamental costar I've had. It would throw tantrums like you wouldn't believe.

I often thought I was in the wrong business. I was pretty seriously thinking of tossing it in before I shot Shine. I do not know why. I was pretty restless, I had been through a bad period of stress induced anxiety - panic attacks - and I was not sure of what I wanted to do.

Someone told me that there's a connection to Superman, that in an early edition of the Green Lantern comics, Tomar Re was the envoy to Krypton. That was fascinating to me.

People are intrigued and fascinated, almost obsessed with the private lives of great public personalities.

I think that Ionesco's greatest weapon is that he's able to make us laugh at the darkest corners of our souls.