Ask "why" until there is no more "why."

With big, emotional roles it's very easy, especially if you've grown up in the American school of acting, to exploit your own pain. You have to be careful about that, because 9 times out of 10, your pain is not appropriate to the character.

There's something grueling but very appealing about rough, to-the-bone material in a low budget context. There's less between you and the material. There are less people. There is less time. There's often less technology. You have to concentrate very intensely, and you jump in a little deeper because there's nothing in your way... but there are challenges.

The basic laws of good acting are the same, but everything about the experience is different-your job responsibility, the time you spend on it.

I always laugh to myself when I listen to some really big A-list star saying that they are just a normal person.

At school I was always trying to con my teachers into letting me act out book reports instead of writing them.

Most scripts are written to be green lit. They're not written to be acted. And a lot of writers with the greatest intention in the world don't write for actors. They don't understand the architecture of what an actor needs to get from point A to point B.