Alden Ehrenreich
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.
There's movies that I would've loved to be in that I just wasn't even considered for because they need a name. And that happens so frequently that, after a while - from a creative standpoint - you just want to be able to have that opportunity to work with the best people. That opportunity is available to you with a certain level of notoriety.
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.
My parents were big film buffs.
When I was 12, I decided I was only going to watch Westerns for a few months.
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.
Acting-wise, I've had all these experiences. Yet when I look at certain people whose careers I admire, they've gotten to play so many different characters.
I made short films in school.
The biggest challenge to being an actor is, when you're not working, just being unemployed: the downtime and not having anything to do.
When you work for the Coens, they are so fun and so organized. They treat everyone with such respect.
My parents weren't involved in show business, but my parents would show me. We'd watch old films in the house. Little film festivals of Westerns and stuff like that when I was a kid. I knew I wanted to be those guys in those movies before I knew what being an actor was.
My mother always cultivated my imagination from the time I was very little.
My mom wouldn't let me do child acting.
No one remembers it; none of my friends remember me having it, but I had really bad acne for, like, years.
I listen to some really bad country.
I just can't imagine having to do an accent all the time - like, in your whole career.
What drew me to 'Beautiful Creatures' was the character that I get to play, Ethan. Within three pages, I knew he is so specific and interesting.
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.
There's a lot of directors I'd still love to work with - one of them is Spielberg, because he kind of started my career, and I've not worked with him yet.
Every movie I've done, it's always the same criteria: finding a great story, and finding a great part to play.
I really don't know what it's like in 'Twilight,' but I know in the young-adult genre, there are these cold, aloof guys. If you start thinking that's the ideal guy when you're 13, by the time you're 25, you're going to have had some seriously bad relationships.
Something that is appealing to me about old Hollywood is job security.
I really want to be a part of those movies that say something good to a lot of people.Collection: People
I'm an actor because I love movies, and always have loved movies. I'm a film buff. So, getting to work with those kinds of directors and getting to tell those stories is what I want to do.Collection: Movie Love
You get bummed out, and then you go, "Oh! Now I get to go buy a present for myself." That kind of helps.Collection: Helping
I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation; it's a calling.Collection: Romance
When I was a little kid, my parents would show me Marx Brothers films and westerns and stuff like that. Thats where all my desire to be an actor comes from and probably most of my understanding of acting comes from for sure.Collection: Brother
I buy myself a present whenever I don't get a role that I really wanted.Collection: Roles
So many times you can't get a foot in the door unless you're already in the room.Collection: Doors
The idea of it [Star Wars] is really exciting, but the most fun part is the actual job you get to do: the character that you get to play, the people that you work with, the day-to-day experience.Collection: Stars
Woody Allen is kind of the one example I don't have. Because the way he works and the amount of shooting time that I did on that film, I didn't really get to know him, so he kind of stays as "Woody Allen" to me.Collection: Example
The last three movies I've done, I played a cowboy, then I played a soldier, and now I play Han Solo. So the little kid in me is having a real joyride.Collection: Real
Like I've known Francis [For Coppola] for so long I think, "Oh, Francis." And then you see his name on something with The Godfather, and you go, "Oh, yeah. He's also that." The person you knew of before you met the actual person.Collection: Thinking
I had an audition process that went on for a long time, and I got to spend a lot of time with the guys who are directing the film. Getting to be around them and being around the world a little bit has been the main experience so far. I did my audition on the Millennium Falcon for one of my screen tests, which was pretty cool.Collection: Long
Same with the Coen brothers and Warren [Beatty]. And then slowly you get to know each one of them as a person, and that becomes a kind of separate entity, where you just know the human being.Collection: Brother
When I worked with anybody like Woody Allen, there's the name, and your understanding of who they are before you meet them, that stays in your head a little bit.Collection: Names
It's a little bit about how I felt about Hail, Caesar! and now Star Wars. I could not have predicted those things happening to me. But I'm just happy they come along.Collection: Stars
I actually remember getting asked when we were at the Cannes Film Festival, what I expected to do next. I remember feeling like there was no way I could've imagined that something like Tetro would have happened to me.Collection: Cannes Film Festival
Warren [Beatty] did a very cool thing, where he directs in character.Collection: Character
I think you always feel like you're about a hair's breadth away from being a bad actor anyway... It's not too hard to let the rope go slack, so to speak.Collection: Thinking
Acting-wise, I've had all these experiences. Yet when I look at certain people whose careers I admire, they've gotten to play so many different characters. So it's just that - getting to have more of these singular little adventures where you get to be a part of a completely different world.Collection: Wise
I had the opportunity to learn more about what life is like for a soldier [in The Yellow Birds].Collection: Opportunity
Basically, Beautiful Creatures was the first lead that I had since Tetro, and it was a lesson in seeing what it's like to film a movie that's of a much bigger scale. It was a good initiation.Collection: Beautiful
[The Yellow Birds] is based on a novel written by Kevin Powers, who is an Iraq War vet. I play a soldier who promises my friend's mother I'm going to keep him alive. But when we go overseas to Iraq, he gets killed. It's about what happened to him, my reckoning and dealing with that as I return home from the war.Collection: Mother
I'm just excited to be a part of the movie [Star Wars]. It's always the particulars that are the most exciting.Collection: Stars
It was pretty fun [auditioning on the Millennium Falcon], because I enjoyed the material a lot. Last year I read for the directors, then came to England and did a test on the Falcon, then came back and did a couple more screen tests in Los Angeles.Collection: Couple
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 don't find it very helpful to know who else is going up for stuff, generally.Collection: Trying
Somebody comes to your house. You know they're coming, so it's not a surprise. And they give you an envelope that has your scenes in it. And they sit in the car outside for a half an hour while you read your scenes, then they ring your doorbell and you give your scenes back. Then you shoot the movie a few weeks later or something. The next time you see your scenes is the night before you start shooting. I never read the script [Blue Jasmine], so I didn't really know what it was about.Collection: Night