Everywhere you turn in New Zealand, there's something exciting to do. It's the gem of the world. It's so far away from the madness, and so you get that element. It was just stunning.
Growing up, I could never decide what I wanted to be because I wanted to be so many things.
As an actor, you always want to reach back to being a child and having the spontaneity and the imagination of a child.
Sometimes when you're doing fantasy, that's the most important thing, is to be a blank space, because the last thing you want to do ever as an actor is judge yourself or the character or the movie that you're in. You want to just play the moment as best you can. Juilliard helped me do that.
I wanted fame, but I thought it would be incremental, and I became afraid of the overnight-sensation thing.
It's all in the writing. The writing has got to be there. Whether that's dialogue or character, or whatever, it doesn't matter. As long as they've done something special, than you can do something special.
After 'Four Feathers,' I quit then because I just lost faith. I didn't like how the business was.
I always think about stuff I learned, in any scene. Juilliard taught me a lot.
You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors.
Both my parents are Methodist preachers, I grew up in a church.
I am aware of my film habits because I have for so long played guys who are darker or dealing with very complex issues, and they're dealing with their darker sides.
A reflection of an exact image is the closest thing to you-so that you can see it-but it's far enough away so that you really understand it. There is real life in this movie, but it hovers just an inch above reality.
Then my extended family, there are preachers and evangelists, former priests. So I have quite a bit of history with Church, religion and spirituality.
I still consider myself a very spiritual person but the structure of the church isn't really for me.
A lot of actors will complain about the green screen work, but what you do get to do is what you probably should have learned, from the beginning, on stage. You have to create it in your mind and really go there to bring it. Part of the fun of acting is those challenges. You feel goofy, but sometimes that's a good feeling.
I didn't know anything about Opus Die except from pop culture, like Dan Brown novels, which I knew wasn't really knowing anything about Opus Die.
But as a kid, I loved 'Monty Python.' My Dad was a devout watcher. We used to watch it when we ate dinner!
I live to experience different things. Part of what I love about acting is to live the lives of others.
Whenever I am applying myself to something, I can't help but be part of it.
The first year at Juilliard is, I think, the best. And partly why I left - I only went one year. Partly why I felt okay leaving is that the most important elements, I believe, happen in the first year. What they do is they tear down all your conceptions of acting, and they take away all your tricks that you've learned.
