Paul Dano
It's a lot of fun to be a part of films that you don't exactly know how they're going to turn out.
I like listening to my playlist on the iPod. I don't want radio with commercials.
I went to private school in Manhattan, and at a young age, they made us do public speaking. For some reason, I was good at standing in front of the class and speaking.
Even when I'm alone, my life revolves around film. I think that's why I live in New York, not L.A., where it's so concentrated.
Sometimes I think your intellect can get in your way as an actor or an artist. When you come from a world of improv and comedy, you're able to let it flicker and fall out.
To be running away from explosions with Harrison Ford, you know, that's pretty great.
The better the acting is, the harder it is to see what the process is.
I love Brooklyn; it's a part of who you are.
I always ask for more takes. I like doing takes, so I'll do as many as I can.
'Little Miss Sunshine' was really important to me.
In tragedy, it's hard to find a good resolution; it's not black and white: it's a big fog of gray.
I think you sometimes have to go hit rock bottom before you can grow and rebuild as a person.
Sometimes we fall in love with the idea of a person and have trouble seeing the real thing.
When you repeat yourself so many times, even if you're speaking the truth, the repetition starts to feel false. Sometimes, you just feel like the words you're speaking, even if they once had meaning, have lost it. And that makes you feel kind of silly.
People think memorizing lines is hard, when that's the last thing you worry about. You get that done, and then you've got to worry about the internal stuff, which is the challenging part.
I'm very low-maintenance.
Being actors is a strange job.
Have I seen any plays that I've been in? Uh, you know, might be a little weird.
I love cereal. I eat several bowls a day, mostly a few late at night.
One of my favorite films is 'Dumb and Dumber.' I'd love to do some really silly comedy someday.
I think 'American Pie' is great.
I think control is a two-way street; sometimes people want to control things to keep them safe if they are afraid of life.
Everything you do, every experience that you have, enlightens you a little bit or worsens you.
I started acting pretty young, so I haven't had too many odd jobs. But I used to sell candy out of my locker in middle school.
I feel like, once you're doing a job, you shouldn't talk about it.
There's a lot of people that I would love to work with. There's a lot of different kinds of parts I wanna play. As your career progresses, you hope that you get some more opportunity or some more choice.
I think that one of the strangest things about being an actor is, it's almost freelance work.
It's a funny thing. You sort of never figure it out with acting. You're always learning.
I tore my ACL playing basketball.
I mean, to feel in good hands as an actor... it's the best feeling.
George C. Scott, man, was a powerful dude.
One thing you notice is, there's a lot of people with raw talent, and then there's people who take that talent and work hard.
I like characters that make me feel challenged and sort of inspired.
I really don't want to go to work every day convincing myself of what I'm saying. I want the material to make me a better actor; then I try to return the favor to the material.
As an actor, the toughest thing is being subject to circumstance. Meaning: What scripts are out there that are available?
There's that thing that if you want to have any kind of lasting love, I think you have to love the whole person and not just the parts of them that you choose.
I'm not a person who needs to chit-chat between takes by any means.
With somebody like Harrison Ford, they're so commanding and confident, and you know, he does have a certain power or charisma, and those are things that are sort of ineffable.
I think the idea is to try and understand everything about the characters and where the character is coming from, from their point of view, why they say what they do. And not, 'Oh, but I would never say that. Why does the character say that?' But then making it as personal as possible.
People have asked me about playing outsiders. I don't consider myself an outsider. Maybe that's why I'm interested in that. I'm not really sure.
I think was overly empathetic for a while in my life.
I don't want my learning curve to be stunted by just all of a sudden doing work all the time and not being careful about the work that I'm doing.
You try to get to know your character as best as you can before you start filming - what's written and not written.
I've definitely been in ruts, and I think having some kind of perseverance is important.
I like movies a lot, and I feel really excited when I see a movie that moves me the right way.
I've seen people, where if they have to wait around the set for three hours, and they call you at the wrong time, and they're not ready for you, some people don't like that.
I love filming in New York. I love New York movies, too. I just like it when people can take New York and make it their own, because there are so many different New Yorks.
I sort of grew up doing theater. And that's how I got into film, actually.
Theater is hard.