Playing an icon [superman], you don't try to be an icon because that defeats the purpose. The responsibility attached is enormous, and the realization that it actually really, really matters meant that I wanted to put the most amount of work into representing the character properly.

At boarding school there wasn't much time for much of anything except education.

My version of Superman is essentially of a guy who has spent his whole life alone.

If you're a good actor, then you channel enough of yourself into the character so that you do get that other thing.

If there is some sort of trouble at home, kids don't think that James Bond is going to come save their mum from their dad, or their dad from their mum. They don't think, "Bond is going to come and save me." Superman is a different sort of idealized figure.

It's our job as actors to make it look like it's not manufactured. If you have two actors who understand their characters - and therefore what they are trying to portray - then all they need to do is be the characters and there's a chemistry there.

When you give your all to something and you're hitting a wall, it just feels so wrong.