Seeing someone happy on set is just a very small slice of the reality of an actor's life.

I don't want to be a basket case on set. I try to sort of quiet all of that, all those thoughts, kinda just let yourself be aware of them when you're preparing to do the work but then once you get there you have to feel as free as possible. Anything that I perceived as something that ran the risk of stressing me out, I just left outside the studio doors because I didn't want to undermine myself.

I didn’t find it difficult to live in the “Inherent Vice” world or play those scenes, because they just seemed so real.

I've never had to talk about my work, nobody's given a damn about it - you know, what I thought. I find that I sort of like that, to get to keep it to myself. It's a bit bizarre.

Costume design is so important and really helpful, and I really love that aspect of character development, just figuring it out.

I find life so shocking in general. Everything about it surprises me.

What I love about the way they both [Paul Thomas Anderson and Joaquin Phoenix] work is that all of the monkey business is on film. There's no monkey business outside of the monkey business of making the movie. There's no ego bullshit, there's no wasted energy. It's all directed at the story and that's rare.