Even though I grew up in L.A., no one in my family was in the movie industry. I've always felt whatever the opposite of disillusioned is. I guess illusioned with movies and with people in movies and things like that. It's all exciting to me.
Every movie I've done, it's always the same criteria: finding a great story, and finding a great part to play.
I really think that movies are the most popular form of story telling ever and have such a huge impact on culture when they do. So I really want to be a part of those movies that say something good to a lot of people.
Whenever you hear somebody else is auditioning for something, you sort of assume they're going to get it. You should try to just ignore it.
I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation: it's a calling. You have an inner intuition, an inner 'yes.' I don't know if it's destined or not, but certainly I couldn't imagine being the person I am today without the romantic experiences I've had.
If I tried to somehow wrap my head around the fact that Francis Ford Coppola directed my first movie, there's never a slot into which that ever fits in your mind.
I think everyone in high school at one point feels like they're on the outside observing what's going on. Even if you're very popular, you have an outsider experience.
I had a great high-school experience. I had a lot of friends that I'm still really good friends with, but there's always times where a group can't understand what the individual is experiencing, or you're going through something at home that you can't bring to school and have a total understanding among your peers.
Some movies, I think, present ideas of the world that just don't help people with their lives. They just present things that are fleeting or stupid. So that's what I'm careful about - making sure I'm part of something that is saying something that I think is valuable in the world of people, not necessarily in the world of art.
My feeling is that I don't really care about the genre or the size of the movie. I care about the quality of the writing and the quality of the characters.
With 'Running Scared,' I originally wanted to do a piece that was going to be about a couple, and the whole thing would be based on wall posts on Facebook. So the idea started there.
An era that I specifically like is sort of late '50s, early '60s. I guess mid '50s, too. I like these types of films that deal with post-WWII America and this more complex leading man that kind of emerges from that.
I was told one time never to go longer than an hour in an interview because you reveal yourself too much, but I never follow that rule.
I haven't worked enough to worry about getting typecast, but I do as a film lover didn't want to be working with the bad guys. I didn't want to be making a movie I thought was contributing to a lower base of movies that I just didn't think were helping people, really.
I carry around a black leather Moleskine journal all the time. And I always write ideas down, especially when I'm on set and working with actors like Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis and learning from them.
I think, for me, the only real value to fame, stuff like that, is that you can then have a lot more creative power to get certain movies made and to do certain things.
I've had a couple opportunities where I've been on the other side of the audition process as a director, so it's really reassuring to me that it's just about who is right for that role and less about if you ace the audition. It's just about getting to know people, not about who's a better actor a lot of the time.