As actors, we react to the material that's out there, and I probably just react more strongly to things that I feel will have some social value.

I love shooting, when the character is interesting and the script is interesting, but the research beforehand is really fun. The whole process makes me anxious and restless, and I have trouble sleeping, just trying to figure out the character.

And you know, we were talking about American identity, and where we've come from and where we are and where we're headed. We knew that we wanted to have a hopeful ending and we wanted it to be pro-community, and a pro-democracy type of movie.

I don't see as many movies as I used to. Or, I should say, as many movies as I would like to.

The better the actor, the less you know about his life. I mean, nobody's better than De Niro and you don't know anything about him, right?

The only sci-fi movie that I've ever been offered that, had circumstances been different, I would have definitely done, was 'Avatar.' And I literally couldn't do it because of my schedule. But listening to James Cameron talk about 'Avatar' was so fascinating. Because he literally invented the world in his mind - and it literally existed.

It was shameful and embarrassing that there were two years in a row without a single actor of color nominated. That's insane.