We actually did a lot of takes on this movie [J. Edgar Hoover]. I never left the set wanting more. That's for sure. I don't know. This was a very difficult character for me and a lot of the other actors here, and at times we went and did 8 or 9 or 10 takes on a single day.

It was closer to manual labor than shooting a film. I always think of something Michael Caton-Jones told me: 'Pain is temporary. Film is forever.'

We only get one planet.

Some people don't get it when I'm being sarcastic.

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

Doing what we do [filming], you have to be your own critic and judge and adjudicate as to what you do and how it turned out.

I remember when I first started having these interpretations of these images, these clichés of what movie stars are and this and that, and they're egomaniacal pricks and tyrants, but in general, for the most part, they're nice people to tell you the truth.