Fear is like the steam that fires the combustion engine. You need fear to get a performance going.

Eccentricity is what's sexy in people.

The Pagan model of religion because, in the Pagan model, there were lots and lots of Gods and Goddesses. They were all incredibly beautiful and there were statues of them everywhere, which is the equivalent of magazines, or whatever, today. And they were fallible, which is different from being mono-, you know, Jewish or Islam (where) you have the infallible, monotheistic God.

You never know how things will turn out. And you can't really say it turned out wrong. Whatever happens, happens. The important thing is that you followed your gut.

I love to take baths.

Normally, I would do research. For The Constant Gardener, I played an activist, so I went to meet activists. You can find them dotted around. But with The Brothers Bloom, I couldn't meet a nutty heiress who lived in a bubble in a mansion. There was no one to meet. So this was just an active imagining, a daydream.

I think that in big-budget movies there's a lot of other stuff going on besides acting, like special effects.