Any time I saw people treated unfairly because of race, creed, whatever - it struck a nerve.

Success is a tricky mistress. It's nice to have but it's a tricky thing to embrace.

I guess there are different ways to handle success. You can multiply it financially and use it to multiply your net worth. That's always been very appealing to me.

I'm not good at compromise.

I'm not that interested in someone that one-dimensional, but I'm interested in playing somebody that's more complicated.

I was raised in California during the Second World War and into the '50s and everything was fine, everything was great. The sun always shone, everybody looked healthy and wore ties and smoked in restaurants, and there were cars for everybody - except us, because I came from a lower class neighbourhood. But [in France] I realised there was a different point of view, so when I came back to America a year and a half later I was much more focused on my own country culturally and politically.

I've been able to carve out spaces for myself. At Sundance, I'm in the mountains - my property is private. I get on a horse and ride for three, four hours. Sometimes five. I get lost. But when I'm in, I'm in.