With Altman, he does discuss everything with you, but then leaves you to it and gives you full rein and lets you improvise and create a character while the camera is rolling.
When you're acting, it should be the most important thing that's going on. But when you're not, leave it alone.
When you look at people, you should look at more than what you see on the surface; you should try to find a soul.
When you are a character actor they trust you will go in and give them a full character and leave.
When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.
What kind of recognition do I deserve? I don't deserve any recognition.
Until I got 'Full Metal Jacket,' I was doing Off-Off-Broadway plays with three people in the audience.
Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.
To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.
This haunting idea of becoming a celebrity doesn't settle well with me at all.
They were all interested in what I was going to do, because I'd never worked in televsion before.
Then I did Mystic Pizza, just to do something I wasn't fat in.
The Whole Wide World is the first movie I've ever produced.
The search for the truth is not for the faint hearted.
The only thing I do worry about is that the more films I do the more visible I am going to become as a personality because of press and because of the sheer quantity of films.
The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.
The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters.
The minute you start feeling like you've got it down, you know what you're doing, you're dead in the water.
So I moved to Europe and only came back when directors like Robert Altman would call me after they'd seen my work in Full Metal Jacket.
So a failed movie is not going to ruin my career.
People who are extremely inside their head, like he was, are caught in a neurosis that goes round and round. Then something will hook them and take them to their end and they can't control it.
Our show is different, because it's not about law and order, it's about psychology, the intent of somebody.
No, I knew when I was doing theater in New York that this was what I was supposed to be doing.
My partner Dan Ireland wants me to direct, and I read a lot of scripts - some good enough that I could see myself. But then it's like, so what? Who cares? Let someone else direct it.
Look, all you can do when you find your niche is go with it.
Like De Niro. He's one of the best character actors we have ever had.
It's pretty simple, pretty obvious: that people's first impressions of people are really a big mistake.
It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.
It doesn't need to be a number one show, it just needs to be good.
It doesn't need to be a No 1 show, it just needs to be good.
