When I was 8, I got a little toy propeller plane: You could turn it on and the people disappeared from the little windows and stewardesses appeared, and it ran along the ground.

When I was a very little boy I lived underneath the air pattern of LaGuardia airport in New York and I watched the planes fly to their destinations. I was in love with the design of these airplanes.

I never in a million years thought I would be starring in Hairspray, ever. Because if you think about my past, it's been 30 years of playing a macho leading man, so when I was offered it, I said: "Why? Why me? What have I done to deserve that you think I should do this?" After much convincing, over a year and two months, I was convinced they wanted to make a great movie.

I love being regarded as a sex symbol, but I can't take it too seriously.

You have a freedom in playing the villain. You can be a lot more out there, really. And there is a joy in that. There is a joy in kind of making a zone of psychoses.

You can't control the quality of projects that are coming to you, so if you get several in a row that are quality, you take them.

You come to work knowing you're going to do good work without any doubt. You can go where you need to go and nothing is wrong and you pick the rightnesses out. If something doesn't work, you let them go, but you don't hold onto those wrongnesses. You just hold onto the rightnesses, so it's a playing field that anyone would want and feel much more comfortable with.