James Cagney, Steve McQueen, I loved all those guys. I grew up loving the movies but had no desire to be in them.

I always root for the bad guy and I don't think you have a great movie without a great villain.

[Cade Yeager] is like a man on the run which is fun, it's a bit of an adventure story.

When you go into a starring position and you're carrying a movie, it's important that people like it. So I only do things that I can connect with in some sort of way, or that I can identify with.

Every time I do a movie, I'm reading the script, or if it's something I have coming up, I'm reading the script, and I just spend hours and hours and days and weeks and months going over the script and just writing a lot of different ideas down, finding a little dialogue or just coming up with ideas for scenes and moments and all that kind of stuff.

It's funny, because when you're younger you're in a rush to be 18 or 21 or whatever. But then you hit 30. And now, the days go by like hours. You think, 40, man, this could be the halfway point. It could be the three-quarters point, you know? Who knows?

It's of being alone with my dad. He drove a truck for a living. But he had a few free hours in the middle of the day, between the morning shift and the late afternoon shift. Because I was the youngest of nine, I could have him all to myself when they were at school. We'd watch movies at home, or go to the movies, and he introduced me to the guys who still inspire me today.