Here's the problem: I don't like who I've become when my iPhone is within reach. I find myself checking e-mails and responding to texts throughout the day with some kind of Pavlovian ferocity - it's not a conscious act, but a reflexive one.

An obsessive attention to the news, I've realized, only serves to paint a picture of the world as a throbbing blob of dysfunction, most news falling somewhere on a scale from disappointing to calamitous.

I learned a lesson which I didn't heed: Don't put yourself in your movies. It's too much.

I've always been attracted to ensembles. When I started doing plays in high school and in college, I always loved the community aspect of it. I loved these little families that would develop.

It never made sense to me that someone would achieve any kind of success in show business, only to become a jerk.

My trick is the trick that everyone knows: Work really hard and prepare.

The attitude of the director is really important, in terms of setting tone.