I didn't come to Hollywood to drink or get high, and I don't want to be considered a cool actor - I want to be a great actor.Collection: Cool
When I was a teenager, you wanted to go to the movies. Go and see 'Mean Streets,' go and see 'The Conversation,' go and see 'Taxi Driver.'Collection: Movies
Although I get so much fan mail from Great Britain, tell me, am I more famous there than Michael Madsen?Collection: Famous
I don't know if people know that Sylvester Stallone is one of the most decent gentlemen that I've ever met. He's the most consistent friend I've ever had.
I read for 'Reservoir Dogs,' and it got down to me and Buscemi, and Quentin couldn't make up his mind. I really wanted that part, but Buscemi is great in that. I also got really close on 'Gladiator,' but Ridley Scott decided on Russell Crowe, who's perfect in it.
I know that 20 years from now if anyone asks me one question, it will be, 'What was it like to be in Saving Private Ryan?
Being alone is scarier than any boogey man and the reason why I don't choose to see Horror movies as a rule.
My wife and I are a team, and it's good for my work because I'm interested in working from a stable base.
Temptation is impossible for me to resist... Come on. This is Hollywood. It's in the job description.
You must have to want it so badly, if there is any way you can live without it, get out of it. Being an unsuccessful actor is like having a skin disease. Make sure your passion is not misplaced.
I try to stop and take a 10-second break and ask myself before I do something: One, is this going to improve my life for my children, or two, will there be a potential for something to go wrong here?
I used to blame my problems on other people. But my moment of clarity, if you want to call it that, came when I was looking in the mirror one day and just burst into tears. It wasn't just that I looked bad, it was that I knew my problem was me.
I used to be very rigid because I just wanted to get through it. Now, if I think a scene should go a certain way and it goes another, I'm able to go that new way with ease.
I play tough guys in movies and behaved like one in front of the press because I thought that was what a man did.
Some actors try to play parts and do things they can't do. Being funny is one of them. Being funny's hard.
Whatever it is, if you draw, you paint, you're a carpenter, you play football, the more you do it, you're a journalist, the more stories you write, the more people you interview and navigate your way through these different personalities to get your story, the better you're going to get at it. Acting's no different.
Acting is never done. We're trying to keep it real and make sure that you're entertained and it seems unrehearsed.
Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.
Katherine Heigl was a movie star. I thought she was going to be one, and it was fun to watch this young actress getting better every day.
I like Michael Bay a whole lot. And Jerry Bruckheimer. But I love Ben Affleck as a person, as a director, as an actor.
I don't know what to say about it except Tom Hanks is a great person, a serious person; he's dissatisfied in a very likeable way, in a very discreet way, and Steven Spielberg is similar in his discretion and drive. But Spielberg is calm. He's this driven filmmaker and visionary. He really is.
Although my mother and father were both completely legit, it was all around me, this crime and licentiousness.
I have tried to make decisions to work with great directors, with good scripts, and that makes the pickings real slim.
It used to be the case that studio executives like Robert Evans, Darryl Zanuck, and David Selznick would put aside money for what they wanted to be great movies regardless of whether they would perform well with the box office.
I have an idealistic approach to acting. I want to be great at it, but you can't be great if the scripts are not there and the director doesn't know what he's doing.