Actor

I think there's a lot of mythos about what's required in acting.

One of my earlier films is 'Quigley Down Under.' That was early on in my career, and that was horsey.

I came from the outer suburbs of Melbourne, so you do learn how to survive in that environment.

Let me give you a little Mendelsohn 101: I came up in television in the early- to mid- 1980s in Australia.

I'm very well known in the industry and relatively well known by people who are aficionados and what not, but outside of that - no.

As an outsider in America, you do see the kind of hypocrisy that's rampant there.

'Slow West' is a western, and it's sort of a twist on the genre stylistically, I think, from what I understand going in.

I was with my grandmother, while one of my brothers lived with my dad, and one lived with my mom. It wasn't a great situation. Acting was the one good thing I was involved in.

At 15 I had moved out of my parents' place, and my options were looking pretty narrow. But I had this acting thing and I just wanted to be able to keep going because it was really good. That was all I wanted.

I don't have memorabilia but try to take a bit of wardrobe, usually because they dress me better than I dress myself.

I have an intensive relationship with the thing that I'm working on, and I hope that comes through. It's better for me to not worry about the things I can't fix once they're done.

I think it's that thing of growing up all the time watching American movies and listening to American music. It hits you in a way that's a lot purer because you are not in that culture that you're watching.

I never felt like someone who was boyish and coming to terms with asking girls out or anything like that, which was what 'The Big Steal' and 'Spotswood' were about. But I guess that's the impression I left on people.

You feel an affinity with younger actors, because, you know, it's a very insecure job. And it can be a long time before you feel like, you know, things might be all right.

Most young actors, that's all they're trying to do: Get better at acting and be able to keep doing it. And that doesn't work out for most people.

Once upon a time, they thought I was a sweet, wide-eyed boy that was just trying to figure out how to kiss the girl. Lots of comic relief and adolescent yearnings.

I think I've benefited from not being hugely known. It means I have to do something really effective to be noticed.

It's good to surf whatever waves are going on right there as they're happening.

I think some of my favorite Australian films were shot by people that are not Australian. And I think when Dean Semler did 'Dances with Wolves,' for instance, that's a very different-looking Western than what you've seen much of before. It's very rich, color-wise. But we've got our own very proud thing going on.

The people I've encountered who are really dangerous in my life don't go around with their fangs drawn - they are dangerous because of the way they interpret what's going on.