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One Of The Tough Things About Being An Actor, Probably The Hardest Thing, Is Getting Your Foot In The Door, And My Father Handled That For Me At A Very Early Age. It's Funny, I Get An Image Of The Thing With Eggs And Chickens Where, When The Egg Is Getting Ready To Hatch, The Little Chicken Will Start To Peck At The Shell A Little Bit, And The Mom Will Hear That And Start To Peck At The Shell From The Outside, And They're Both Kind Of Working Together.

-Jeff Bridges

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One Of The Tough

Jeff Bridges

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One Of The Tough Things About Being An Actor, Probably The Hardest Thing, Is Getting Your Foot In The Door, And My Father Handled That For Me At A Very Early Age. It's Funny, I Get An Image Of The Thing With Eggs And Chickens Where, When The Egg Is Getting Ready To Hatch, The Little Chicken Will Start To Peck At The Shell A Little Bit, And The Mom Will Hear That And Start To Peck At The Shell From The Outside, And They're Both Kind Of Working Together.

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Working Together

More From Jeff Bridges

I'm Always Busy, But I'm Lazy As Well.

Whenever I Work On A Part, I Look At The World Through The Filter Of The Character And I Pick Things They Might Use Through My Observations Of Real Life.

During My Early Years, I Thought I Might Be A Musician. Like Most Kids, I Didn't Do What My Parents Wanted Me To Do. They Were Gung-ho That All Their Kids Become Actors. They Loved Showbiz So Much. I Am A Product Of Nepotism, Basically.

I'm In New Mexico Making A Movie Called "granite Mountain." I'm Playing The Head Of The Organization Called Statesman, Which Is The United States Version Of Kingsman. I'm Like How Michael Caine Was In The Original.

Tightness Gets In The Way Of Everything, Except Tightness.

Do I Have A Long-term Plan? Kind Of. I Have A General Direction, I Think. But It's Funny What Comes Down The Pike.

You Always Hear People Say That Having Kids Changes Everything, But You Can't Fully Realize It Until You Have Children Yourself.

It's Not Enough Just To Treat Women Well. We Have To Work To Make Sure All Men Treat Women Well.

Your Part Can Be The King, But Unless People Are Treating You Like Royalty, You Ain't No King, Man.

If You Open Your Heart, Then The Object Of Your Love Becomes So Precious Because You Are So Open. And That Philosophy, That Caring, Spreads.

I Consider Myself Pretty Lazy, But I Look Back And Check Out The Stuff I've Done, And I Say, 'god, That's A Lot Of Stuff For A Lazy Guy.' It's A Paradox, I Suppose, Being Both Things.

Live Like You're Already Dead, Man. Have A Good Time. Do Your Best. Let It All Come Ripping Right Through You.

I Remember In One Of My Early Films I Had A Drunk Scene. It Was Kiss Me Goodbye, With Sally Field, And I Was Playing This Kind Of Nerdy Guy Who Gets Drunk And Dances. And So I Thought, "oh Well, I'll Just Get Drunk And Do The Dance." And It Was Wonderful, But Then I Had The Rest Of The Day, And The Next Day. So I Learned That You Don't Really Have To Do The Things That Your Character Is Doing. But Us Actors, We Use Something Called Sense Memory. I've Certainly Been Drunk Before, And Part Of My Job Is To Recall That Without Getting Drunk.

A Fool And His Money Are Quickly Parted.

I Loved Working With My Brother [beau] And My Father [lloyd] Whenever That Happened. I Had A Wonderful Experience Making "the Fabulous Baker Boys," Which I Felt Was A Great Movie, Too.

Normally, We Push Away The Things We're Scared Of.

There's Lots Of Good Movies Where You Feel That The Dialogue Could Be Improvised, But Very Little Was. The "big Lebowski" Was Like That Where People Say "oh, You Know, That Sounds So..." And We'd Always Go Back And Get Every Man, Every Ellipses In There The Way These Guys Write It. Because Not Only Is It Saying What Michael Wants The Character To Say But The Way They All Speak Kind Of Creates This Tone Because It's Not Exactly Real.

Kevin Bacon And I Recently Worked On A Move Together, R.i.p.d. Just Before We'd Begin A Scene, When All Of Us Would Feel The Normal Anxiety That Actors Feel Be- Fore They Start To Perform, Kevin Would Look At Me And The Other Actors With A Very Serious Expression On His Face And Say: "remember, Everything Depends On This!" It Would Make Us All Laugh. On The One Hand, It's Not True Of Course, But On The Other, Everything Does Depend On This, On Just This Moment And Our Attitude Toward This Moment.

Remembers Everything

If Some Crazy Idea Stays In My Head For Long Enough, Then There's No Fighting It. I Just Say, Okay, Let's Go.

One Thing I Want To Do Is Create Something Called Ring Around Congress. It Would Be A State Deal And Also A National Thing, Where The Kids, As A Field Trip, Will Go And Join Hands Around Congress And Give The Politicians Report Cards On How They're Voting On Hunger Issues.

As Filmmakers, We're Constantly Always Looking For Something To Bring The Audience Deeper Into The Reality Of The Story We're Telling.

For Me, Growing Up, The Downside Of It Was That As A Kid You Don't Want To Stand Out. You Don't Want To Have A Famous Father Let Alone Get A Job Because Of Your Famous Father, You Know? But I'm A Product Of Nepotism. That's How I Got My Foot In The Door, Through My Dad.

I Think My Love Of Journalizing My Life Comes From My Mom.

Play Doesn't Have To Be A Frivolous Thing. You May Think Of A Beethoven Symphony As Something Serious, But It's Still Being Played. I Think Oscar Wilde Said That Life Is Too Important To Be Taken Seriously.

There's A Bit Of The Kid In Me.

It Can Kind Of Screw Up Things If You're Trying To Overwork Something.

You Know, I Thought We Could Use A Good Myth About Technology To Help Guide Us Through These Particular Modern Waters Right Now.

I Have Hesitation Making Any Kind Of Decision, Really In My Life. I'm Really Slow At It.

Sometimes You Feel You're Making Something Really Special And When It Comes Out You Might Still Feel That Way But For Some Reason It Doesn't Get The Audience. So Many Things Have To Come Together To Get A Creatively Successful And Financially Successful Film.

It Gives Me More Breadth As An Actor And As An Artist To Not Be Pigeonholed.

I'm One Of Those Guys Who Will Drink To, Uh, Kind Of Celebrate. I Don't Drink Too Much When I'm Down Or Anything Like That. But You've Really Got To Be, I Guess The Word That Came To Mind Is "creative," About The Way You're Celebrating. You Want To Keep The Celebration Going. I've Learned That Lesson Over And Over. Here On The Road There's A Lot Of Cause For Celebration, But You Just Gotta Get The Damper Out A Little Bit, And You Want To Keep That Governor On. You Want To Keep Your Give-a-shitter In Kick.

Technology Is Such A Broad Kind Of Term, It Really Applies To So Many Things, From The Electric Light To Running Cars On Oil. All Of These Different Things Can Be Called Technology. I Have Kind Of A Love-hate Relationship With It, As I Expect Most People Do. With The Computer, I Spend So Many Hours Sitting In Front Of A Computer.

Execution Is Everything.

I'm Not Real Good At Romance.

To Go Into Therapy Is An Adventure, Not Really To Iron Anything Out.

I Have My Prized Possession In My Wallet. That's A Photograph Of The First Words I Ever Uttered To My Wife, And Her Answer To My Question When I Asked Her, "will You Go Out With Me?"

Words Fall Short Sometimes.

We're Here For Such A Short Period Of Time.

One In Four Kids In The U.s. Faces Hunger.

I Understand Professionals Have To Work When They Don't Feel Like It, And I Certainly Don't Feel Like It. So Maybe This Will Put The Nail In The Coffin For My Acting Career.

I Just Hope That Theaters Remain. I Think There's Something Very Wonderful About Getting Into A Dark Room With A Bunch Of People. There's Something Cool About That. Brings Us All Together In One Room Where We Can Experience All Those Emotions.

There Are Some Actors That Want You To Call Them By Their Character's Name And They Have No Relationship With You Outside Of The Character. But I Like To Get To Know Who I'm Working With So That We Can Relax Together, And It's More Fun.

I've Done Movies In The Past That Have So Many Characters And I Find It's Very Hard To Follow All These Stories. You End Up Not Caring About Any Of The People And I Thought That Would Be The Case In This Film, And You Had These Big Speeches For Each Character, You Know, It's Like "god That's How You'll Have To Cut That Down In Order To Paste It All", To Edit The Movie And My Representatives Could Say "no, You Really You Ought To Check It Out.

I'm Pretty Critical Of Myself As Far As Reaching Some Sort Of Perfect Bull's-eye Or Target That I'm Aiming For.

I've Got A Closet Full Of Tuxes, And I Appreciate That, Because One Thing I Don't Like To Do Is Shop.

I Hate It When There's A Good Movie, Someone Overhypes It And I'm Disappointed That I Don't Like It More.

People Fall In Love For Mysterious Reasons.

Falling In Love

A Large Part Of Acting Is Just Pretending. You Get To Work With These Other Great Make-believers, All Making Believe As Hard As They Can.

I Thought Bringing Those Two [taylor Sheridan And David Mackenzie] Together, Odds Are You're Going To Come Up With Something Pretty Good.

You Have To Find Your Tone And Work Within That To Make It As Real So The Audience Can Really Engage In The Story You're Telling.

When You Truly Commit In Your Life, You Start Receiving More Than You Could Imagine.

Nowadays, In The Contract That Actors Sign, You Have To Agree That You're Going To Do A Certain Amount Of Publicity-the Hard Part They Don't Pay You For.

As You Become Famous You Lose Some Of Your Anonymity, Which Is Wonderful For An Actor To Have Because You Can Observe People And Also People Don't Have Such A Strong Sense Of Who You Are And That Sort Of Thing.

My Brother's My Teacher, My Mentor, And We Both Learnt All The Acting Basics From Our Father.

Like Most Of The Movies I Get Involved With, I Resisted As Long As Possible, I Really Try To Figure Out Why I Shouldn't Do It And This One Had Plenty Of Reasons "not To Do It".

I'm Constantly Falling Deeper In Love With My Wife.

I Love Seeing Somebody Act Real Earnest And Serious, Like Jackie Gleason. He Makes Me Laugh Because He Reflects Back To Me My Own Serious-mindedness And How Ridiculous It All Is. It's Always Easier To See Somebody Else In That Position Than Yourself, And You Laugh. It's Like The Classic Slipping On The Banana Peel, Or Someone Getting Hit By A Pie In The Face. Why Do Those Things Make Us Laugh? Is It From Relief, Like: Thank God It Wasn't Me? Or Is It Something Else: I'm Being Very Serious Now. I'm Pontificating Earnestly And Solemnly About-pow! Pie In The Face! The Bust-up Of Certainty.

When You Start To Engage With Your Creative Processes, It Shakes Up All Your Impulses, And They All Kind Of Inform One Another.

I Think There's A Real Joy In Going To See Movies When You Discover Them Yourself.

I'd Maybe Done About 12 Movies When I Decided That This Was What I Was Going To Do.

I Wish I Were More Disciplined.

Well, There Are All Kinds Of Gutters. Life Will Supply You With Gutters.

Working With My Dad Was Such A Gas. We Approached The Work In A Similar Way. We Only Made Two Films Together When I Was An Adult, Tucker, And Blown Away, But It Was So Much Fun To Play With Your Parent Like That.

Often When I Finish A Film I'll Have That Feeling Inside Me: 'i Never Want To Do This Ever Again. I Don't Want To Pretend Anymore. I Want To Be Myself And Do That.' And Then, Thank God, That Feeling Goes Away After A Month Or So And I'm Raring To Go Again.

I've Done Several Commercials And I've Done Voiceovers For Documentaries.

Normally, I Love To Go To The Movies And When I See A Character Portrayed By Different Actors At Different Ages, It Kind Of Pops A Little Bit For Me. It Brings Me Out Of The Movie Experience. Now We Have The Technology To Cure That.

Everyone I Meet Is In My Sangha. I Don't Know If That's The Proper Definition, But That's The Way I'm Going To Hold It In My Mind.

One Of The Things That I Find So Exciting About Life Is That You're Constantly Surprised. You Never Know What's Going To Happen, And It's Certainly Like That Making Movies; Every Once In A While, One Will Come Along That Transcends All Of Your Expectations.

Public Charities, Foodbanks And Church Pantries Are Doing More Than Ever Before, But They Can't Keep Up With The Need. We Can Never End Hunger Only Through The Wonderful Work Of Local Charities. Like Other Western Democracies, We Must End Our National Problem Of Hunger Through National And Political Leadership. Charity Is Nice For Some Things, But Not As A Way To Feed A Nation. We Don't Protect Our National Security Through Charity, And We Shouldn't Protect Our Families And Children That Way Either.

I Don't Really Think In Career Terms.

What I Learned Most From My Father Wasn't Anything He Said; It Was Just The Way He Behaved. He Loved His Work So Much That, Whenever He Came On Set, He Brought That With Him, And Other People Rose To It.

I Used To Read Comics When I Was A Kid.

One Of My Favorite Artists Is Tom Waits, Whom Most People Think Of As A Wonderful Singer-songwriter And A Great Poet. I Certainly Think Of Him That Way, But I Also Know Him As A Terrific Actor. You Know, That Persona That He Puts On When He's Doing His Music Comes From Being An Actor, Figuring Out A Persona.

I'm A Big Fan Of Country.

Generally Speaking I Would Say I Enjoy The Smaller Films More Because There's A Less Sense Of Pressure And Often The Material Is More Unusual.

You Know, Ballet Might Be Too Formal Of A Title For The Type Of Dance I Do, But I Love To Dance.

So I Have This Word For Much Of What I Do In Life: 'plorking.' I'm Not Playing And I'm Not Working, I'm Plorking.

I Confessed To Mike [cimino] A Couple Of Days Before We Shot. I Was Like, "what Am I Doing Here, Mike?" And Mike Just Looked At Me, In That Very Directorial Manor, Took A Long Pause, And He Said, "you Know The Game Tag?" And I Said, "yeah." And He Said, "well, You're It." That Was Some Of The Best Direction I Think I've Ever Received.

I Can See How A Relationship With A Writer Would Be An Easy Thing.

I Had Success As An Actor Relatively Early. When I Was 22, I Got Nominated For An Academy Award For The Last Picture Show, So That Road, You Know, Had The Least Resistance. I Was Doing My Music All That Time, But It's Pretty Hard To Turn Down These Great Movie Offers. And My Father Counseled Me; He Said, "you Know, One Of The Wonderful Things About Acting Is That You Can Incorporate All Of Your Interests Into The Different Parts You Play." I'm Glad I Listened To The Old Man, Because That's The Way It Turned Out.

Any Role That Big Is Going To Be A Challenge For Any Actor, But For An Actor Of A Young Age, It's Going To Be Even Tougher.

My Main Teachers Were My Father And My Mother And My Brother.

I Don't Have One Movie That Is My Favorite, I Have About 25-30 Favorites.

I'm Drawn To The Path Of Least Resistance.

Path Of Least Resistance

It's A Wonderful Metaphor, Catching A Wave, For How You Can Look At Other Challenges In Your Life.

Generally Speaking I Would Say I Enjoy The Smaller Films More Because There's A Less Sense Of Pressure And Often The Material Is More Unusual. But In "iron Man" It Was Kind Of Like Both Worlds Colliding Because There Was A Lot Of Improvisation, Not That We Improv-ed In The Scenes But To Discover The Actual Scenes Themselves.

If You Change Partners Every Time It Gets Tough Or You Get A Little Dissatisfied, Then I Don't Think You Get The Richness That's Available In A Long-term Relationship.

Yeah I Loved, As A Kid Growing Up, I Loved Science-fiction.

All Of This High-tech Stuff Is Supposed To Set Us Free And Make Life Easier. To Me, It Makes It More Difficult And Demanding.

Myths Are Wonderful Tools That We've Had, Oh, For Eons Now That Help Us Navigate The Situations We Find Ourselves In.

Most Cynics Are Really Crushed Romantics: They've Been Hurt, They're Sensitive, And Their Cynicism Is A Shell That's Protecting This Tiny, Dear Part In Them That's Still Alive.

Sometimes I Think Of Movie Acting As Advanced Pretend.

I Kind Of Quit Surfing When I Got Out Of High School, But Then A Few Years Ago I Started To Take It Up Again. I'm Not An Expert By Any Means, But It's So Wonderful To Get Out In The Ocean And Get A Different Perspective On Things.

I'm Very Much Into The Costuming Of Any Character That I Portray And It's One Of The Great Things About Making Movies Is It's A Collaborative Art Form So You Get All These Artists Who Are Looking Specifically About For This Instance Your Character's Costume And What That Might Tell About Your Character.

This Is Many, Many Years Ago. It Was Shortly After "starman" I Think. I Don't Know How Close I Was To Getting The Part. I Met With [director] Penny Marshall And That's One That I Knew Would Be A Hit. It Just Felt Hit-ish. But It's Like You Go To A Store And You See A Jacket And You Go "i Love That Jacket" And You Try It On And It's Too Big Or Too Small For You And It's The Only One They Have. For Some Reason That Part Just Didn't Fit Me.

Basically, One Of The Hardest Things About Being An Actor Is Getting Your First Break. I'm A Product Of Nepotism. The Doors Were Open To Me. I'd Done Several Movies Before I Decided What I Wanted To Do.

You Can Change Things, You Can Make Things Better.

I Know How To Dance With The Wind, I Can Use Its Power By Sailing This Way, Then That Way, And Again This Way, Till Finally I Get To You. With Rowing, You're Working Primarily With Your Arms And Shoulders. But With Sailing, You're Making Bigger Use Of The Wind And The Waves.

Well, When We Made 'tron' There Was No Internet, No Cellphones.

I'm Kind Of An Idea Guy.

Directing Takes A Lot Of Time.

Life's Picking Up Speed.

Memories Are Not Just About The Past. They Determine Our Future.

With A Labyrinth, You Make A Choice To Go In - And Once You've Chosen, Around And Around You Go. But You Always Find Your Way To The Center.

That Movie, 'airplane!,' What A Landmark Film It Was. It's A Great, Great Movie.

You Have That Frank Capra Kind Of Side To It And The Characters Are Really Well Drawn, So I Think Everybody Tried Their Best To Stay Faithful To The Script.

I've Got To Watch My Back, So I Can't Put On Too Much Weight.

It's Like That Perfection Thing, Trying To Be That Thing You're Not. You Have To Feel That Discomfort And Not Try To Get Rid Of It. Accept That Aspect And Get Into It. Acknowledge Those Feelings And Let Them Be. You Are Who You Are.

Once, During An Interview In Front Of My Wife, I Was Asked, "are You One Of Those Actors Who Brings Your Character Home? Do You Stay In Character?" I Said, "no, Not Really. I Don't Do That," And She Started Laughing. I Asked Her Why. She Said, "well, You Might Think You Don't Bring Characters Home, But You Do." So, While I Don't Feel Like A Character Is Lingering, It Probably Is.

Normally, After A Movie, You Know, You Don't Want To Get Up And Do Another One Right Away. That Kind Of Pretend Muscle Or Whatever You Use Making Movies Is Kind Of, You Know, Spent. And You Have Other Things To Do.

As Far As The Lack Of Hits Goes, I Think Perhaps It's Because I've Played A Lot Of Different Roles And Have Not Created A Persona That The Public Can Latch On To. I Have Played Everything From Psychopathic Killers To Romantic Leading Men, And In Picking Such Diverse Roles I Have Avoided Typecasting.

I'm A Chairperson For 'no Kid Hungry', A Campaign For Poor American Children.

I've Worked With A Lot Of First-time Directors Who Kind Of Look To Me For Ideas And Opinions And Stuff, And I'm A Team Player.

You Can Relate To Somebody's Pain And You Have Compassion, Which Can Lead To Intimacy.

I'm Not Counting Any Chickens.

Poverty Is A Very Complicated Issue, But Feeding A Child Isn't.

35 Million People In The U.s. Are Hungry Or Don't Know Where Their Next Meal Is Coming From, And 13 Million Of Them Are Children. If Another Country Were Doing This To Our Children, We'd Be At War.

Obviously It's Fun To Let Yourself Go And Eat A Pint Of Haagen Dazs, But Being Healthy Feels The Best. Sobriety And Health Is The Greatest Thing.

As Far As 3-d Goes, I Don't Know If That Will Stay Very Long Because Things Are Moving So Rapidly.

When You're A Professional You Gotta Do It [your Job] When You Don't Feel Like Doing It.

I Find I'm Most Challenged By Things I Really Care About, Because I Really Want To Do Them Well. It Causes Quite A Bit Of Anxiety. But That Very Thing You're Afraid Of Is Kind Of Like A Blessing In Disguise. If You Didn't Have That Fear, You Wouldn't Have The Other Side - Courage And Bravery, Positive Emotions.as An Actor, You Get Used To Those Fears, And You're Almost Happy When They Show Up. It Makes You Learn Your Lines And Prepare.

A Fella Who Accepts Himself And Is Relaxed Into Who He Is - That Appeals To People.

Making Films Is Sort Of Like You're Pulling Off A Magic Trick. It's Sort Of Like An Illusion. It's Not Real But You Want It To Appear Real, And All Kinds Of Things Go Into That, From The Clothes You're Wearing To The Make-up, To The Light.

I Have A Cycle That Is Not Particularly Cool, But It's A Cycle: Trash Myself To Reward Myself.

Sticking With A Marriage. That's True Grit, Man.

When I Was Really Young, My Mom Enrolled Me In Dance Classes.

I Play Music As Much As I Can. I Have A Band Called The Abiders. We've Put Out A Couple Of Albums You Can Find On Itunes. We Tour And All That Stuff, So Music Is Very Much A Part Of My Life.

Every Couple Of Years We'll Watch The Movie And It's Like Watching Home Movies, Seeing The Ranch On-screen. But That Movie Heaven's Gate, People Are Appreciating It More And More As Time Goes On.

Well, Thanksgiving We'll All Gather At My House For Dinner And We Usually Do Christmas At Beau's House. My Mom Is Still Feisty And Kicking. She's 92. I Saw Her Last Night And She Published A Book At 90. It's A Wonderful Book Called "you Caught Me Kissing" And It's Basically Love-poems That She Wrote For My Dad. It's More Than That, It's A Wonderful Book.

I First Got Involved With Ending World Hunger, And I Got Hip To The Facts About It - What A Huge Problem It Was And How It Wasn't A Matter Of Not Having Food Or Not Knowing How To End It, But It Was A Matter Of Creating The Political Will.

You Know, It's Kind Of A Shame In A Way But The More Seasoned Directors A Lot Of Times Have More Difficult Getting A Job Than First Time Guys. New Kid On The Block Kind Of Thing.

Well, I'm Not A Big Sports Fan.

As A Kid, You Want To Be Liked For Who You Are. You Don't Want To Be Liked For Who Your Parents Are. You Don't Want To Get A Job Because Of Who Your Parents Are. You Want To Do It On Your Own, With Your Own Gifts And Your Own Value. So, I Decided To Spare My Kids That And Not Be As Pro-active As My Dad Was.

I've Done Quite A Few Movies, I Generally Can Feel That I'm Not Right For The Role Or A General Fear If I Can Pull It Off, And Him Giving That "tag" So To Speak Gave Me The Confidence. Like That Miles Davis Line, "don't Worry About Mistakes, There Aren't Any." Once You Are The Part, You're The Guy, So You Can't Not Be The Guy Because You're It.

If You're Married You'll Have Tough Times.

I Remember When I Was A Kid, With The Acting Thing, I Resented It Because, You Know, You Don't Want To Do What Your Parents Want You To Do. You Got Your Own Things. And The Whole Idea Of Getting A Job Because Of Who Your Father Is - That Didn't Feel Right. But After A While I Guess I Figured I Must Be Doing Something Right, Because People Wouldn't Keep Hiring Me If I Didn't Have Something To Give.

I Had A Great '70s. I Survived It, And That's Always Good News.

One Of The Things I Want To Do That's Outside The Realm Of Acting And The Arts - Although Both Have Their Place In This - Is Ending Childhood Hunger Here In America.

Seeing David Mackenzie's Work In "starred Up," I Thought That Was A Wonderful Film.

I'm Also Working Closely With A Group Called The Amazon Conservation Team, Helping With The Rainforest In South America.

I Love John Irving's Stuff. It's That Marriage Of Comedy And Tragedy. It's Really Terrific.

I Found That Photography Was A Great Way Of Relaxing On The Set.

The Hoopla With All The Award Season Is Kind Of Mind-boggling. It Kind Of Puts You On Your Heels.

As Far As Beau Is Concerned, We're On The Same Team, We Root For Each Other. If My Parts Are Slightly More Attractive, Or Are Perceived That Way By Others, He's Very Content.

I Don't Think I Ever Went Down That Movie Star Path. I Always Enjoy Taking A 90-degree Turn From The Last Thing I Did.

Sometimes, You Can Not Click With Somebody, And It Can Feel Awkward.

I Was Loving Music, And Loving Art, Painting, So I Was Considering Those Things, But I Must Say I Dug Acting As Well.

He [michael Cimino] Wasn't The Typical Filmmaker. I Don't Know If He Had More In Him, He Certainly Had A Lot Of Scripts. I Know He Wrote A Hell Of A Lot.

The More Nervous You Get, The More Worried You Get About Something... Maybe You Just Need To Take A Nap.

I Really Try Hard Not To Work, Not To Engage, Because I Know What That Means. What Hard Work It Is; It Takes Me Away From My Family.

I'm Not Locked Into Playing One Guy.

I'm At This Time In Life When I Have To Take The Opportunities I Have Left.

Making A Film, It Uses A Certain... 'pretend-muscle,' I Don't Know What You Want To Call It. It Exhausts Something In Me, I Find. It Has To Be Really Something To Get Me Interested.

I Hadn't Talked To Him In Many, Many Years. He Got A Bad Rap On "heaven's Gate." I Actually Live In The Hog Ranch From "heaven's Gate" In Montana. Mike Cimino Gave Me That Set, The Whorehouse, That's My House.

My Wife, Whenever I'd Go Off To Work And I'd Be Kind Of Anxious, She'll Say, 'remember, Have Fun.' Oh, I Forgot, Thanks For The Reminder. Because Sometimes We Do Forget. We Take It All Too Seriously And There's A Lot Of Joy To Be Had Wherever You Are.

For Me And My Wife, It Was Love At First Sight.

I Think It Would Really Be More Like 10 Films Before I Locked In And Said, "yeah, I'm Really Gonna Do This Thing."

Nowadays It Seems More And More Like The 'business' In 'show Business' Is Underlined, And There Are Campaigns, And It's All Part Of Getting People In To See The Movies.

This Idea Of How Everything Is Interconnected, And The Impermanence Of Things.. It Sums Up The Human Condition To Me, And It Helps Me On My Path.

You Prep, You Prep, You Prep. And On The Day That You Film, You Let All Of That Go. I Try To Achieve Emptiness As Much As Possible - The Zen Thing - To Let The Deal Come Out Of That Nothing.

Pretend Was A Big Part Of My Childhood.

It Used To Kind Of Upset Me When I'd Be Working On A Part In My Hotel Room, And I'd Get An Idea For A Song And Find Myself On The Guitar For An Hour When I Should Be Working On My Lines. But I've Discovered That When I Start To Shake Up My Creativity It Wants To Be Expressed In All Kinds Of Different Ways. They All Kind Of Inform Each Other.

It's Funny. You Succeed, But Now Where Are You Gonna Go From There? I've Got To Keep Proving That I Can Laugh Or Cry More Real Each Time.

I Gotta Take Notes When Things Occur To Me.

I Do My Best To Hold The Director's Opinion Above My Own.

The Wonderful Thing About Acting Is That You Can Use All Of Your Talents And Interests In Your Work.

I'd Done About 10 Movies Before I Decided I Wanted To Make Acting The Main Thrust Of My Career.

I Remember Being On A Black-and-white Set All Day And Then Going Out Into Daylight And Being Amazed By The Colour.

Black And White

That's One Of The Cool Things About Fame. You Have An Affect On Society And Where It Goes.

Always Maintain A Joyful Mind. Appreciate The Struggles As Opportunities To Wake Up.

You Don't Really Have To Do The Things That Your Character Is Doing. But Us Actors, We Use Something Called Sense Memory. I've Certainly Been Drunk Before, And Part Of My Job Is To Recall That Without Getting Drunk.

I'm Used To Watching Old Movies Of Myself.

One Of The Tough Things About Being An Actor, Probably The Hardest Thing, Is Getting Your Foot In The Door, And My Father Handled That For Me At A Very Early Age.

I Don't Know How It Is For Women Or For Other Guys, But When I Was Young And In My 20s, I Had A Fear Of Marriage.

I Don't Really Consider Myself One Of Those Actors Who Takes His Work Home With Him.

I Think We're All Hooked, I Feel My Own Hook-ness On Immediate Gratification You Know. I Want What I Want.

Fame Really Works Against Actors, In A Way, Because Our Anonymity Is A Wonderful Thing For Us.

Movies Are Very Subjective.

I Look Back At My Filmography, And I'm Pretty Jazzed With The Stuff I've Been Part Of. They're All Movies I'd Like To See.

What Are The Aspects Of Yourself That Line Up With The Character? You Magnify Those, And The Ones That Don't Match Up You Kind Of Kick To The Curb.

If You're Like Me, I Get Hooked Into To-do Lists, You Know. I'll Say I Checked That Off. Okay, I Did That. And You Have All These Things You're Doing.

We Love Things That Are Convenient.

The More Space And Emptiness You Can Create In Yourself, Then You Can Let The Rest Of The World Come In And Fill You Up.

Myths Are Wonderful - They Really Tell The Stories That Connect All Of Us And Teach Us So Much.

Unlike A Lot Of Actors, My Father Encouraged All His Kids To Go Into Show Business.

Sometimes You'll Have A Movie That You're Very Proud Of And You Think It Transcended All Of Your Expectations But It Doesn't Come Out At The Right Time. I Have Done Movies That Have Never Been Released. That Can Be Depressing.

It Was Fortunate For All Of Us To Have Joaquin Jackson, Who Is A Very Renowned Texas Ranger, On Board. He Spent Quite A Few Days With Us On Set And He Added A Lot To It For Me On What It's Like To Be A Texas Ranger.

I'm Very Manipulative Towards Directors. My Theory Is That Everyone On The Set Is Directing The Film, We're All Receiving Art Messages From The Universe On How We Should Do The Film.

I Just Find My Creativity Manifesting A Bunch Of Different Ways.

She Was This Incredible Mom. With Each Of Her Kids, She Did Something Called `time,' Where She Would Spend An Hour Each Day Doing Whatever The Kid Wanted To Do, Whether It Was Play Spacemen Or `let's Go Into Your Makeup, And I'll Make You Up Like A Clown.' And As A Teenager You'd Be Like, `rub Me, Mom. Give Me A Massage.'

Yeah, I've Been Interested In Music Since I Was A Teenager, Always Writing Songs.

Movies Are Like Magic Tricks.

My Mother And My Father Were Very Nurturing And Wonderful Examples Of How To Live Your Life.

In Life And In Movies, It's A Similar Challenge, Where You Have Expectations, And You End Up In Situations That Are Not Meeting Your Expectations.

I've Produced A Couple Of Films And Really Enjoyed Starting It From The Very Beginning And Seeing It All The Way Through To The End; That Was Very Gratifying.

Yeah, I Loved Ray Bradbury.

When I'm Working, I'm Very Purposeful And Everything Else Gets Out Of Focus. Something I've Had To Work On Together With My Wife Is How To Acknowledge Each Other In The Midst Of This And Keep The Relationship Going.

I Want To Have All Of My Faculties.

I Went Through A Very Hairy Period. I Had A Movie Where I Was Going To Play Walt Whitman That Fell Through. At The Time, I Had Grown This Huge Beard And Very Long Hair. But Then, The Movie Got Canceled, I Had Some Other Parts, And I Currently Have Very Short Hair. So, When I Look In The Mirror, I Don't Know Who I Am Exactly. It's Interesting.

I've Never Been Motivated By The Award Thing. There's A Certain Thing That This Fame Thing Does That Makes My Job Harder, In A Way. I'm Still Working With That. I Don't Think About It Too Much Until Somebody Asks Me A Question, And Then I Think About It.

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