Actor

Well, when I was a kid and I watched 'Speed Racer,' I used to always watch it in the morning with my cereal. And when I ate the cereal, I would pour soda into the cereal because we never really had milk for some reason, I don't know.

The genres are widening. I don't think that there's as many limitations on the kinds of projects that actors can do as there once was.

On 'Into The Wild' I spent months risking my life and on 'Speed Racer' I spent 60 days acting in front of a green screen. No danger to my physical self, but I sure had to use my imagination.

If you give an actor any wiggle room to whine in situations where they want to whine, you're gonna whine.

We want to do for 'Hamlet' what Baz Luhrmann did for 'Romeo and Juliet' in terms of like a really cool kind of re-imagining.

There's something about the good-hearted guy fighting the system. I just love that. That's how 'Speed' is. He's a really focused guy with a heart of gold and the corporations are trying to crush him and use him for his skills to make them more money.

The willingness to keep learning is, I think, the most important thing about trying to be good at anything. You never want to stop learning.

When you're reading Thoreau you look at Hollywood differently, let me tell ya!

I think I've always been half out of my shell and half in. Sometimes I can be extremely wild and sometimes I can be extremely shy. It just depends on the day.

I know what wanting and craving adventure feels like, I can really relate to that.

I'm a very, very conservative driver.

I'm not staying away from any genre. I'm trying to get scripts that I like.

When I got a lap dance, because I was 17, they had to put a massive pillow between me and the girl when she was grinding me. It was weird, yet pleasurable.

It was very, very challenging being on this thing called the gimbal. It would throw you around, give you whiplash, and they'd tie you down.

I've definitely had ideas and plans that sometimes exceed my means and capabilities.

I was so grateful to have made 'Into the Wild' before I made 'Speed Racer' because on 'Speed Racer' I was indoors every single day, every single scene, on a green screen. Some of the time, just to pass the time, I would think back to climbing mountains in Alaska. That really helped me.

I'm not a ball in a pinball machine. I know what I want.

I've realized that what you think of when you make a 'big movie,' if it's actually a green screen movie, it's like doing independent New York theater because you don't have any backgrounds or props. So it's kind of like making the lowest budgeted film you could possibly imagine, plus $100 million.

Believe it or not, I got into the charismatic, shady, sly heart of Sedgewick Bell by watching CNN and C-SPAN.

There's something just so kind of smooth about politicians.