You can take a handful of dollars, a good story, and people with passion and make a movie that will stand up against any $70 million movie.
It's easy to be a movie star. The shoes are already there. They just put you in the shoes.
When you look at some of the most respected actors there are and the crap that they're in... it didn't used to be that way.
Whatever character you're playing you have to complete the entire interior infrastructure, whatever it is - but what gets divulged or what people completely understand depends on the script and what you decide to show. But you have to know it.
Now, being on the cover of Vanity Fair is as important as being in great movies. The lines are very, very blurred.
I dont have a problem with fame. I got into this business intending to be very successful, but I wanted it to be at my price.
Training Day was such a Hollywood movie; I didn't like it.
Violence doesn't seem to bother people anymore - they're inured to it. And I think it has a lot to do with the violence in movies and video games - it doesn't bother people as much. I'm not so sure it evokes a reaction anymore.
It's interesting to help someone find their vocabulary. There would not have been a De Niro without a Scorsese.
I don't like people who use the press to advance themselves in a way that they haven't earned as an actor, performer or director.
I really tried to make movies I wanted to see. I thought that if I was good enough, somebody would always need me.
Everybody acts like they're in a movie in most movies. That's why they stink.
I made three movies in 1995 and I was unhappy with all of them: Sleepers, Incognito, and Speed 2.
I think thats what I really liked about Narc: My character has a real operatic range in a way that older movies used to have.
I think The Exorcist is the best American horror movie ever made. Friedkin was at the top of his game.
If I was coming into the business today, I wouldn't be in it. Knowing what I know, absolutely not.
When actors talk about research, they're just patting themselves on the back.
You know how many movies it took Tom Cruise before he was making 5, 6 million dollars? It probably took a billion dollars in box office.
I try to stay under the radar.
I never turned down a movie because they wouldn't give me enough money.
My method seems to change to everything, especially when you get older. You have more of a resonance to be able to grab to. When you're younger, you have these big boundaries because you don't know how to get you to where you are. When you get older, you have a few tricks that you can pull off.
I don't find movies interesting. I just want to do the movies that made me interested in getting into movies, and they're few and far between.
Mostly I do films that mainstream Hollywood wouldn't touch.
Pacino's always played the suffering prince. I just find that interesting.
I have a problem with the blatant celebrity exhibitionism that happens in this business and being sold purely as a brand.
