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Working With Jim Sheridan For Instance, We Did This Movie Brothers. Jim Will Ask Anybody - We'll Get A Delivery On Set, And Like The Poor Delivery Guy Will Be Like, "here's Your Pizza," And He'll Be Like, "come Over Here. Come Here. I Want To Ask You A Question. Do You Think This Is Real? What Do You Think? Should We Do Another Take?" And They're Like, "i, Uh, You Want Your Pizza?" There's No Shame In Everybody's Ideas. There's No Shame In Somebody Not Knowing.

-Jake Gyllenhaal

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Working With Jim Sheridan

Jake Gyllenhaal

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Working With Jim Sheridan For Instance, We Did This Movie Brothers. Jim Will Ask Anybody - We'll Get A Delivery On Set, And Like The Poor Delivery Guy Will Be Like, "here's Your Pizza," And He'll Be Like, "come Over Here. Come Here. I Want To Ask You A Question. Do You Think This Is Real? What Do You Think? Should We Do Another Take?" And They're Like, "i, Uh, You Want Your Pizza?" There's No Shame In Everybody's Ideas. There's No Shame In Somebody Not Knowing.

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I Grew Up On Movie Sets, So It Was Something I Just Found Familiar. When I Was Growing Up Also, In High School, I Would Audition For Things And My Parents Let Me Audition For Things - With The Thought That I Wouldn't Get Them. And Then I Would Get Them... Sometimes, And It Would Surprise Them.

There Are A Lot Of Different Things That Are Spinning And Connecting When Your Family Sees What You Do.

Working With Jim Sheridan For Instance, We Did This Movie Brothers. Jim Will Ask Anybody - We'll Get A Delivery On Set, And Like The Poor Delivery Guy Will Be Like, "here's Your Pizza," And He'll Be Like, "come Over Here. Come Here. I Want To Ask You A Question. Do You Think This Is Real? What Do You Think? Should We Do Another Take?" And They're Like, "i, Uh, You Want Your Pizza?" There's No Shame In Everybody's Ideas. There's No Shame In Somebody Not Knowing.

I Don't Think I Had Any Idea At The Time How To Work With Someone As Masterful As He Is. And I Don't Think At The Time I Really Understood What Was Happening. I Think I Was In A Space Where I Was Like: There Are All These Things. I Was Shooting All These Takes With David, And I Was Just Confused, As A Person, And As An Actor Feeling A Little Too Big For My Britches And That This Thing Was Happening And Then Also Not Having Enough Skill Yet, And Technique To Know Exactly Where I Was, And Know About The Character.

I Wasn't Really Quite Sure Where Heath Ledger Came From, And I Think That's The Feeling Most People Got When They Were Around Him And Why He Was So Extraordinary.

'brokeback Mountain' Takes All Your Conceptions Of America, And The Western, And Cowboys, And Sexuality, And Love, And It Stirs Them All Up.

Brokeback Mountain

I Was Listening To This Adele Song, Where She's Like, "when We Were Young..." I Was Like, "you're 27. Are You Kidding Me?

When You Find Theater Writing Like In The Theater On Film But It's Realistic, It Doesn't Matter Who The Character Is, You Want To Do It.

We Are All From Different Cultures. Heath's [ledger] Australian, Really. I'm From Here. Ang's [lee] From China. But I Think Ang Gets Very Close In Preproduction And Rehearsals. And Then He Allows His Actors - I Don't Think Scared Of Actors, But I Think He's Scared Of Getting In On The Scenes He's Watching. The Space He's Watching. So He Just Totally Disconnects From You While You're Shooting.

I Fooled Around With Heath Ledger And Michelle Williams Got Pregnant.

In A Perfect World, I Would Love To Do One Play For Every Three Movies.

I'm A Very Political Person, And I Make Political Choices In My Movies.

Often Times It's Really Hard For Me To Articulate Why I Connect To Something.

I Don't Have A "i Want To Play This Or That," I Just Don't Have That. I've Never Been Like That.

I'm More Baskin-robbins Style Myself.

I Have A Mentor. I Have... Guides. I Have A Lot Of Guides. Not A Lot, But People Whose Opinions I Really Respect And Who I Will Turn To.

I Could Draw Ideas. I Remember Writing A Paper For A Seminar Class. I Remember Writing A Paper About - And This Is Going To Sound Really Sort Of Pretentious, But That's Where My Mind Was At The Time - How Acting And The Performing Artist Can Really Be Like A Bodhisattva, How They Can Communicate Ultimately An Idea In A Way That Can Move And Shift Things. And That Was Wonderful. I Didn't Know Many Classes Where I Could Try And Relate The Thing That I Really Loved And Wanted To Do Into An Intellectual Idea, And That Happened To Be One Of Them.

Don't Listen To What Anybody Says Except The People Who Encourage You. If It's What You Want To Do And It's Within Yourself, Then Keep Going And Try To Do It For The Rest Of Your Life.

Crazy People Don't Sit Around Wondering If They're Nuts.

Not To Say That You Should Be Constantly Trying To Change The World, But I Think It's Important To Know That Whatever We Do Has An Implication And Has An Effect, And Because Of That It Is Political.

I Think I'm Generally - Fear, Fear Is Very Still, So In Terms Of That Kind Of Fear - There's So Many Different Kinds Of Fear, But Fear Is Something, Particularly In Movies, That's Interesting, Because It's Created By The Film Maker, That Was Created By David Fincher, That's Why He's Brilliant.

I Think I Find Tactile Things, You Know. Just The Feeling Of Blood Itself Is Enough For Me. If You, Even If It's Not Real Blood. I Mean That's Enough, Like Sometimes There Are Very Simple Things That Are Enough.

Being The Youngest, I Constantly Have That Insecurity Of Being The Youngest, Which Ultimately Is Probably My Drive. In A Lot Of Ways. In Terms Of As An Artist, The Way We Could Communicate As A Family Very Clearly Was Through Movies And Through Acting, And When Things Became Complicated With All Of Our Own Personalities, That's Where We Are Most Clear. I Think That's Also Where We Are Most Brutal With Each Other As Well.

One Of The Things That I'm So Proud Of [about] That Movie [brokeback Mountain], Was To See, Within The Past Basically 10 Years, How Much Has Changed. When The Supreme Court [issued A Ruling] Just A Little While Ago, I Felt Like We Had Been Part, A Little Part And Parcel Of That Movement.

Brokeback Mountain

I Had Been Brought Up In An Elementary School Where, My First Few Grades, I Remember Being Specifically Told That My Teachers Were Gay. I Was Just That Age And That Was Just How It Was, And My Parents Were Very... You Know, That's How I Was Raised. Like Super-progressive.

Even As An Actor, I Think Like A Storyteller. My Parents Raised Us To Look At The Script.

I Can't Not Have Something Attached To Like What Actually Happens In Real Life. Like I Can't Do A Romantic Comedy Without There Being Something Where Like, In The Case Of Annie Hathaway's Character, Her Character Ends Up Having Parkinson's, You Know? To Me, I Feel Like That's Love, You Know? Like To Me. So Every Movie Has To Have That Kind Of Sense Of That.

I Hope That When The World Comes To An End, I Can Breathe A Sigh Of Relief, Because There Will Be So Much To Look Forward To

It's Daunting Trying To Do Any Service As An American To Such A Beautiful, Fluid Speech Pattern That You [british] All Have. We Are Just Barbarians In Comparison.

You Can’t Just Lump Things Into Two Categories. Things Aren’t That Simple.

As A Producer, You Have An Opportunity To See The Whole And Bring People Together.

I Think I'm Not In This Work To Not Look At Life As It Is. I'm Not In It To Say, "i Want To Wear A Mask And Escape," You Know. I Want To Know What's Happening In The World, And I Want To Have It Touch Me In A Way That I Can Do Something, My Little Part Like That, And Have It Somehow Translate.

I Promise That, One Day, Everything's Going To Be Better For You.

My Parents Taught Me As A Kid: Do Your Work. Do It Well. Try As Hard As You Can, Whatever It Is. It Will One Day, For The Long Run, It Will Make Some Sort Of Change Somewhere.

It's Funny To Me That People Find Other People Getting Coffee Really Interesting, Or Walking Their Dog In The Dog Park.

I Had Not Spent A Ton Of Time Around Animals As A Kid.

I Have An Overactive Brain, And As A Result Of That, I Can Really Get In My Own Mind. So I Like To Try And Exercise It To The Point Of Exhaustion.

Hardest Emotion? They're All Pretty Damn Hard; I Don't Know Really If There's One Specifically, But I Do Think, I Don't Know What's Happening Or What I'm Feeling When I'm Actually Listening.

Romance Is Important, But To Have A Friend You Can Use As A Mirror, Who Can Give You An Objective Response, That's What's Really Important.

I Think My Strength Is To Do A Take All The Way Through. I Am Definitely Not Someone Who Can Do A Sprint. Maybe I Am Not That Smart, But It Takes Me A While To Find The Moment, And I Like To Be Pushed Toward It.

I Remember Chris Cooper Saying To Me - I Was Doing October Sky With Him - And He Said, "you Know, You're Just Yelling At Me." He's Like, "you're Just Yelling. You Need To Listen." We Were In A Fight, And You Know, Oh You'd Get So Excited As An Actor, You're Like, "we Have A Fight, Oh, I Get To Get Mad." And He Just Said, "you Need To Listen." And I Started Listening - And Then All Of A Sudden Where I Was Listening Was Where, I Don't Know, Anger Became Something Else.

I Admire Actors And Artists Who Devote Just As Much Time To Their Life As They Do To Their Work.

I Think, Now, Younger Generations Do Take That For Granted In A Lot Of Ways. I Don't Think That Takes Away From The Struggle Of Identity And What That Is. But The Struggle For Identity Is Everybody's Struggle. No Matter What It Is.

I Was Brought Up, And My Sister Too, With Two People Who Were Always Saying, "what You Do Is Really Nowhere Near As Important As The Things That Are Going On In The World, And If Your Work Needs To Reflect That, Or You Want It To, Then You Need To Strive For A Certain Type Of Excellence."

I Think That We All Have Within Us The Potential For Almost Anything. If We Play Close Attention To Our Lives, Then We Can Get At It Somehow.

Ang [lee] Gave Us A Lot Of Books About Cowboys Who Had Been Gay Or Stories About It And All That Stuff. And I Just Talked To A Lot Of My Friends - Who [was] Their First, Particularly Same-sex, First Situation. That Was Fascinating To Me - Trying To Learn What That Was In A Certain Period Of Time. Certain Age. The Secrecy Involved In It. All Those Things.

In Work, Never Have Any Regrets And Always Leave Everything On The Field.

I Remember Watching Meryl Streep In, The River Wild. There's This Scene Where She's Has A Gun Pointed At Her, It's Absurd In A Lot Of Ways. Someone Pulls A Gun On Her I Think, I'm Not Really Fully Aware Of The Scene And She Just, She Starts, You See Her Terrified. And Then All Of A Sudden She Starts To Burst Out Laughing. She Starts Laughing. Like She Can't Stop Laughing. Because She's Terrified And She's Emotional And There Are No Rules To What You're Supposed To Feel. That To Me Is Like A Number One, That's The Thing I Have To Remind Myself All The Time.

I Get Off On The Interaction With People, And I Love The Chess Of A Movie And Particularly - Not Only In Preproduction Or In Production Or Postproduction - The Behavioral Chess. That Is, Learning And Being Humbled By And Also Teaching Certain People Certain Things. I Love That. As A Producer, You Have An Opportunity To See The Whole And Bring People Together.

I Also Think Within The Scene, A Specific Scene - If I Were To Play A Part That I Played 10 Years Ago Now, My Interpretation Of That Scene Would Be Totally Different. I Would Be Making Different Choices. Because I Can't Somehow Subtract All Of The Experiences That I've Had In My Life. And It's Fascinating To See, Because Somewhere I'm Very Reflective In That. You Know, I've Been Playing Basically Actually Close To 40 Years Old, So I'm Somewhere Lost In Age In This Movie. But It's Been Fascinating To See That I Can't Subtract That Time.

I Understand The Opposite Side Of The Camera. I Have A Profound Respect For That. I Have Worked With People Who, When You Hit That Mark, Are Doing 50 Percent Of Your Work For You. So, You Know, It's A Balance. When You Walk Into A Mark And You're Lit A Certain Way Or Something's Happening So Often You Don't Know What's Behind You... And That's What's So Strange About Being A Movie Actor.

As An Actor, No Matter What, You're At The Whim Of So Many Other People All The Time.

I'm Superstitious A Little Bit.

I Always Find You Go Back To An Animal; It Will Always Show You The Sort Of Primal Aspects Of Behavior. You Always Know How To Respond If You Choose That.

I Like That When You Create You Really Do Create With A Very Small Group Of People, And In That Space, Before It Goes Out To All These People, That's What I Love.

I Want, Overall, To Trust What I Know Is Right. There Have Been Many Times When I Haven't.

I'm At A Period In My Life When I'm Figuring Out My Idea Of Who I Am And What I Want And How To Hold Onto Love -- All That Big Stuff. And I'm Starting To Realize That It Can Happen At Any Age. I Know People Who Are In Their 50s Who Are Figuring Out What They Want And Who They Are, And I Think It's Great. It's Like You're Always Approaching Life As A Beginner.

I Hope I'm A Spiritual Person. I'm Trying To Be A Spiritual Person.

As Uta Hagen Would Say, There's The Representational Actor And The Presentational Actor. My Sister [maggie Gyllenhaal] Came Up To Me Recently After She Saw This Movie, Southpaw, The Movie I Did, And She Thought There Was This Exploration Of That Type Of Presentation, And A Bit Of Representation As Well, If I Could Be Totally Honest, Where She Was Deeply Moved.

The Truth Is Most Of The Films That Make A Lot Of Money No One Remembers, And I'm Not Interested In Making Films That No One Remembers.

The Jake Gyllenhaal Workout Planstarts With Growing Long, Long Hairgorgeous Greasy Locks And Then Washing Every Day.wash, Shampoo, Then Condition. Washing Works The Biceps And Then The Triceps By Conditioning. And Vigorously Rubbing All Of Your Body With Soap Really Defines The Abs And The Pectoral Muscles. And If You Do Squats While You're Bathing - That's It!

Really, Contrary To Popular Belief, I Like To Have A Good Time And Not Take Myself Too Seriously.

Having A Good Time

When I Was Young, Before School, My Father Would Wake Me Up And We Would Go Running Together. A Love Of Being Physical, Being Active And Being Outside Was Something He Instilled In Me.

My Mum Raised Us On Classic Movies And A Lot Of Musical Theatre.

In That Way, As An Actor In Particular, You're Powerless. And So In That Way As An Actor In Particular You Can't Make Mistakes.

I Love 'training Day' - That's A Great Movie.

Heath [ledger] Would Walk Up To A Horse And Could Like Silence The Horse. Just Literally He'd Be Like, 'shh. Shh.' And Then He'd Get On The Horse. I'd Be Like, 'i'm Going To Get On You.' They'd Be Like, 'f - Off!' I Didn't Really Have That Style.

Ang Lee Just Allowed Me To Make What We Would Call Mistakes And Had No Judgment Of Them. He Also Empowered Me. You Know, He's Like, "you're My Actor. I Chose You. Whatever You Do Is Right." Right? "i Made The Decision, I'm Complicit In Choosing You. And I Went Through Everything I Could To Choose You, So I Feel Good And Whatever You're Going To Do I'm Going To Give You This Space." And So It Was Very Empowering.

I Think That The Idea Of Boundaries Is Being Challenged Everywhere. And I Think Our Fascination With Sci-fi Is That It Is A Boundary-less World Where We Can Kind Of Create The Reality That We Believe To Be As Opposed To The Reality That Is. It Is About The Beyond And The Unknown In A Different Way Than Pretty Much Any Type Of Storytelling Is.

I Try And Find And Access The Parts Of Myself That Still Blindly Believe And Have Faith In A Lot Of Things. I Don't Mean To Be Cynical, But I've Also Discovered That I Still Have A Lot Of Those. And They May Not Be Where I Expected Them To Be. Maybe I've Been In Relationships, And This Is A Movie About Relationships, Like Romance Relationships - So Maybe I've Been In Some That Have Sort Of Made Me Lose My Faith. But Deep Down Inside, I Still Have Blind Faith.

When I Walk Into A Screening, I'm Nervous In A Different Way Than I Am As An Actor. But The Response Is Ultimately I Know How I Feel About It And That's What Matters To Me The Most.

I Don't Think I've Made A Mistake. I Think I Have Behaved In Ways That I Am Proud Of; I Think I've Behaved In Ways I'm Not.

Don't Listen To What Anybody Says Except The People Who Encourage You.

Sometimes Love Is Calm And Easy And Sometimes It's Just Plain Dirty.

What Made Me Most Courageous Was That I Realized I Had To Try To Let Go Of That Stereotype I Had In My Mind, That Bit Of Homophobia, And Try For A Second To Be Vulnerable And Sensitive. It Was F**kin' Hard, Man. I Succeeded Only For Milliseconds.

As Much As I Am One For Real Human Interaction, I Also Want To Make A Show That's Entertaining And That People Want To See.

I've Become Obsessed With Learning Other Languages In Movies, Because I Was Like, Since I Was Like, But I Learned How To Box So Why Don't I Just Learn Another Language For A Movie?

There Are Standards. I Like To Be Prepared, I Guess I Should Say - That Type Of Pressure Of, "all Right, Now You Go With Abandon," You Know. Now When You're In It, You Let Go Of All The Things - That's What Happens When You're Onstage.

Do You Know What Fear Stands For? False Evidence Appearing Real.

You Have Formal Rehearsal, A Lot Of Things You Don't Have In Movies - Which Is, You Have To Formally Rehearse. You Have To Know Your Back Story, Discuss It, And Almost Everybody Onstage Has To Know Each Other's [story], So That When It Comes Time To Actually Do It, You Can Throw It All Away. That's The Way I Like To - And I Didn't Realize Until Very Recently - That's The Way I Like To Prepare For Movies.

I Love Movies That Are Saying Things That People Might Find Odd At Times. I Don't Find Them Odd At All. They Give Me Comfort.

You Know, It's Flattering When There's A Rumor That Says I'm Bisexual. It Means I Can Play More Kinds Of Roles. I'm Open To Whatever People Want To Call Me. I've Never Really Been Attracted To Men Sexually, But I Don't Think I Would Be Afraid Of It If It Happened.

Theater Has Given Me A Different Perspective On The Way I Approach Films.

I Think You Hear A Lot Of People Say 'i Support The Troops' And All Of That, But I Really Feel Deeply That I Do.

Working With Robert, Robert [elswit] Is A Storyteller. He's Not A Cinematographer, He's A Storyteller. And To Me, That's The Graduation I Hope To Get To In My Profession. That I'm Not Just An Actor, I'm A Storyteller. And I Think That Takes A Long Time In, When You Have One Job On A Movie Set. Makeup Artists, Actor, Whatever. To Graduate From Just That To Storyteller.

I Know Exactly What That Movie's [brokeback Mountain] About. I Can't Define It; It Doesn't Tie Up In A Perfect Bow. But It's About Adolescence. It's About What It Feels Like - This Isn't Meant As A Criticism, But Like Things I Didn't Relate To, Which Were High School Movies. Where I'd Watch It And I'd Be Like, "well, Am I Like The Kid That Nobody Likes? Or Am I Like The Person Who Everybody [likes]?" I Couldn't [tell]. I Was Like Quantifying, Putting Me In A Box. "this Is My Personality At That Age" And "i'm This Kind Of Person" Just Felt Like Bullshit To Me.

I Think It's More, At Least At The Time, A Sense Of Abstraction. My Mind Doesn't Really Work In A Way Where There's A Definitive Sense Of Something. I Go One Way And Then It Opens Up Into A Million Different Ideas, And Somehow, When You Look At The Art, Buddhist Art, Or Particularly Tibetan Art, You Know, It's A Similar Thing. All Of A Sudden There Are A Million Lotus Leaves And You're Following One To The Next And To Another, And I Related To That, And It Felt Simple And Easy To Me. And It Made Me Feel Smart.

I've Decided As An Actor The Only, The Power I Have Really Is In The Performance. It's The Only Real Place I Get To Sort Of Communicate.

When I Was Younger, I Did Work With Coach. I Went To This Place Called Actors Space In The Valley. I Was Pretty Young, And We Were Doing Acting And Improvisation. But No, No I Didn't Go To Rada, I Didn't Do That. But I Do Now Work With An Acting Coach, Primarily For The Initial Intellectual Connection To The Material.

It's Amazing How The World Has Changed Because, At That Time [2005], A Lot Of Actors Didn't Want To Play A Gay Role.

Every Man Goes Through A Period Of Thinking They're Attracted To Another Guy.

I've Never Had Sex With Boxers On And It's An Odd Thing To Watch Actors Do. That's Not Saying I Haven't Tried... I Just Don't Recommend It!

Every Journey Starts With Fear.

I Think That I Have Done Work Where I Feel Like I've Challenged Myself, And Then What's Even More Confusing Is I've Done Work Where I Think I've Challenged Myself And No One's Responded To It, And No One's Interested In It.

Peter Sarsgaard, He's An Extraordinary Actor, And I Would Say That Peter Has Really Brought Into My Life And My Sister's Life A Sense Of Presence As An Actor That I Never Really Understood Or Knew About Until I Met Him. They've Been Together For A Very Long Time, And He Introduced Me To The Idea Of The Presentation.

I Don't Want To Be Lofty When I Say This, But I Don't Know What A Success Is Any More. I Know How We Define It, But That Was A Moment Where I Went, "wait, Who Am I?" You Could Feel The Business, In Particular, Kind Of Go "he's All Right, Let's Go Over Here." I Started To Go, "wait, I Know Why I Love To Do This." I Think I Got Off Track In Why I Love To Do It.

On A Spiritual Level, On A Place Where You Want To Be A Better Human Being And Listen More, I Try. I Joke, But It Has. I Mean, I Don't Consider Myself A Card-carrying Buddhist, You Know. But I Do Believe Deeply In The Ideas, And I Think Anytime You Have Interest In Anything, It Somehow Humbles You.

As An Actor, I Feel Like I'm Somebody Who, When Somebody Gives Me A Mark, I Don't Want To Hit It. I Don't Like That. But Then, Without Even Knowing It, I Just Hit It.

I Have A Profound Respect For Cinematographers. That Is My Secret Sauce. Like They Are Everything To Me.

I Think Also What's Interesting Is That Maggie [gyllenhaal] Knows How Much The Choices That I Make Reflect What's Going On In My Life. Admittedly, Probably, As My Sister, And As Someone Who Loves Me - Like, She Can't Wait To See Become A Father.

My Experience On 'jarhead' Was Life Changing.

We Were Talking About The Kissing In The Movie Just Recently. Clearly, It's Pretty Challenging Material, But Ang Said Two Men Herding Sheep Was Far More Sexual Than Two Men Having Sex On Screen.

I Like The Conscious Manipulation That A Great Director Can Have. When You're Both Complicit In The Manipulation Of An Emotion.

But You Need To Strive To Try And Communicate And Try And Change Things In A Similar Way. And Then People Can Think That's Pretentious Or Whatever, But It's Your Life's Work, And You've Decided That. That's What They Made Us Believe. So We Have A Pretty High Standard, Which Is At Times Great And At Times Not.

When I Look At That Now, All I Think About Is What A Master [david Fincher] I Was Working With, And All Of The Things I Could Have Watched And Learned - And I Didn't. And How, Now, In My Career, How I Would Love To Have A Ton Of Takes.

I Don't Think I'm Sharp Enough To Not Prepare And Come On Set And Kill It.

At Columbia There's No Performing Arts Department, So I Was Searching For It Everywhere I Could, And I Took Some Photography Classes And I Ended Up Becoming Fascinated With Eastern Religion, And Ultimately It Seemed To Encompass The More Abstract Mind That I Have.

I Didn't Know Many Classes Where I Could Try And Relate The Thing That I Really Loved And Wanted To Do Into An Intellectual Idea.

My Mum And Dad Are Pretty Amazing Chefs And They Spent Most Of My Childhood Cooking Really Extravagant Things For My Sister And Me.

Masculinity Is, Nowadays And Generationally, Confusing. What Is Honor, What Is Protection, What Is Being A Man? It's Evolving. But I Believe Having An Open Heart - And A Strong Mind To Protect That - Is The Idea.

I'm Open To Whatever People Want To Call Me.

Being A Star Doesn't Last. That's Not What Life Should Be About. It's A Complete Illusion That Really Has Nothing To Do With You. For Me, Finding Out About Life Is The Most Important Thing.

Do I Take Care Of My Body And Take Conditioning Seriously? Yes.

There Are Lines That Just Stick With Me, Like I Mean I Still Can Remember It's Like Every Line That I Say From Nightcrawler, I Mean It's Just Always There.

To Me Donnie Darko Was About Adolescence. And About How, As Soon As You Start To Grow Up And You Sort Of Move Out Into The World, You Realize Everything Is So Trippy. That Anything Can Be Anything.

I Was Trying To Figure Out Where My Intellect, If I Really Have One, Where It Fit. And So I Was Searching. I Really Didn't Know Who I Was Or What I Really Wanted To Be, And In That Search, Like I Think You Do As An Actor, You End Up Trying To Define Whatever That Is, And I Sort Of Said, "oh Well, Searching Spiritually In A Way Is Interesting, And Eastern Religion Seems To Be About A Search."

By Cool, I Don't Mean Cool. I Mean Vulnerable And A Mess.

What World Am I Living In?' Aren't Movies Made To Have Something To Say? Why Make A Movie If You Don't Have Something To Say? What Are You Doing It For? Are You Doing It Because You Want To Make A Lot Of Money?

My Mom Would Always Say This Thing About Writing - And I've Taken It Into Account In A Lot Of Things In My Life - Which Is Just, "make It Shorter." Figure Out What You Are Truly Saying, Whittle It Down To The Essence, Then Say That.

People Say To Me, Well "what's The Character You Really Want To Play?" And I Go, I Don't Know.

Dad, I May Not Be The Best, But I Come To Believe That I Got It In Me To Be Somebody In This World. And It's Not Because I'm So Different From You Either. It's Because I'm The Same. I Mean, I Can Be Just As Hard-headed, And Just As Tough. I Only Hope I Can Be As Good A Man As You.

I Love Storytelling, You Know, Beyond Anything. I Love A Great Story Beyond A Great Performance. Storytelling Is About What We All Do Together And How We Collaborate Together. A Performance Can Be A Collaboration In Ways, But Oftentimes It's One Individual Thing.

I Have Always Had A Deep Belief That Every Movie, Every Artistic Expression, Is Political. Don't Be Fooled. Even Ones That We Wouldn't Consider Overtly Political Are Political. When We Spend Time Doing Anything, Whether It's Distraction Or Whether It's Something That We Have To Face, It Is Always Political. That's My Belief.

I Like The Idea Of The Adventurer's Spirit. I Think That Is Very Much What A Man Searches For, In A Certain Way.

They're The Darkest People I Know, Comedians.

I Walk Around Thinking Job To Job, Trying To Not Have Regrets.

Sometimes What I Actually Love To Do Is Go To A Farm And Get Fresh Milk Or Watch A Pig Get Slaughtered.

I'm Always Nervous About It. You Know, Somehow, Without Even Knowing It, I Try And Recreate The Idea Of What It Feels Like To Go In Front Of An Audience Every Night When I'm Making A Film. And That Similar Type Of Pressure And Excitement Before A Scene, Or Preparing For A Movie, So...

I Always Say About That Movie [ Brokeback Mountain], Which I Think Maybe Over Time Is More Understood, Is That This Is About Two People Desperately Looking For Love. To Be Loved. And Who Were Probably Capable Of It. And They Just Found It With Someone Of The Same Sex.that Does Not Dismiss The Fact That It Is About, Really, Primarily, The First Kind Of Very Profound Gay Love Story. Hopefully It Can Create An Equality Of An Idea: That Is, It's Possible That You Can Find Love Anywhere.

Chris Cooper Once Told Me To Never Have Any Regrets. After Chris Said That To Me, I Walk Into Every Scene Thinking, 'exhaust Every Possibility.' Once You Get To A Certain Place, It's Like You Just Deliver Everything You've Got. Don't Have Any Regrets. It Pops Up In My Mind Over And Over And Over Again.

I Started To Realize I Love Study, I Love The Study Of Human Behavior.

Everybody Is An Actor In One Way Or Another. We Are All Performing Certain Things.

There's No Shame In Somebody Who Doesn't Necessarily Do That Job Knowing A Little Bit More In That Instance Than You Might Know About Your Own Job, You Know, And I Think That Is Where Movies Are Such A Collaborative Art Form.

I'm A Harsh Critic, You Know? I Am.

Uta Hagen Would Say, There's The Representational Actor And The Presentational Actor.

There's Always An Intellectual Side To The Films Ang Lee's Doing And To The Characters, And There's Such A Deep Knowledge When You've Worked With The Actors That He's Worked With, On Stage In Particular, But Also In Film.

A Separation Is Another Film That I Think Is Extraordinary, And One Of Those Things That Feels Like It's From Another Planet, Much Like Terrence Malick's Movies Did: At A Certain Point, You Feel Like He's An Alien From Another Planet Telling Us And Looking At Us And Showing Us How We Are. I Also Really, Really Love Jerry Mcguire.

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