You collect as much information as you can and then you put it into the mulberry of your mind and hope that you come up with a decent wine. Sometimes you do; sometimes you don't.

I turn up in Los Angeles every now and then, so I can get some big money films in order to finance my smaller money films.

I love working with Lars [von Trier]! I've worked with him three times. I did the narration of Dogville and Manderlay.

It's a great relief to feel that you're working with someone rather than for someone. You don't feel that you're being tested, as it were.

I'd say the film to avoid is a director's second film, particularly if his first film was a big success. The second film is where you've really needed to have learned something.

It's an immensely competitive business, and I can tell you the older you get, the parts are fewer, and the people who are proven performers are greater.

On the other hand, you get other films that are spread over a much longer period of time and it's entirely exhausting. But there's always light at the end of the tunnel with a film.