Since I knew wrestling was all choreographed, I thought, Oh, they don't get hurt at all. But I walked away with a renewed respect for the sport. Because I was very ignorant before - I knew nothing about it.

I spent so long studying really hard to become a fine actor, but threw it all away because I got the adulation and the fame so easily

By the end of the shoot [of Wrestler], my trainer was pushing me up three flights of stairs to my house and holding my arm like I was an old cripple. I had three MRIs in the first two months of working on the film. I felt like it really was over by the time we started shooting the movie.

I did think for many, many years that because of my ability I could beat the system. And I was wrong.

Evan Rachel Wood is the best actress I've ever worked with, hands down.

Actors should shut up about politics. They tend to be ill-informed finger-pointers who just cosy up to some flavour of-the-month liberal.

Usually if you read a screenplay, no matter who's writing it, the bad guy is always written as a one-dimensional bad guy.