As an actor, you're constantly searching for that great character. Also, being a history buff and learning about people in our past and amazing things that they've done, I came across a book about Howard Hughes and he was set up as basically, the most multi-dimensional character I could ever come across. Often, people have tried to define him in biographies, but no one seems to be able to categorize him.

I'm a big history buff so to walk the streets...the ancient world like that was pretty astounding.

Sam [Mendes] said he took advantage of the fact that Kate and I were so close for many years. He knew it was something he could harness in our performances, and we knew that too.

One of my passions is to meet people and then imitate them. I love doing that.

We were both [ with Russel Crowe] hand-plucked to do [The Quick and the Death]. He had done Romper Stomper and I had done Gilbert Grape and so we were hand- plucked to do this big budget film. So we were both very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

I think it's much more interesting when people say, "I love being famous. I love the attention and getting laid and having people I respect admire me," than when they pretend it hasn't had an effect on them.

When I was young I used to have this thing where I wanted to see everything I used to think 'How can I die without seeing every inch of this world?'