I’ve been offered a couple of leads in some movies that really suck. I mean, you know, if they’re offering me the lead, the script ain’t that great. The stuff that’s good, I’m a little further down the cast list.
This is a tough town to live in if you’re not relevant. I’m not making my decisions based on the fear of that. But there’s a reason people have a long career. And it’s because they’re doing respectful work. I really want to be in that group.
I would rather do three or four small parts every year as opposed to some of the lower-hanging fruit that might get my name above the title. If you take that big paycheck for that, it’s going to be real high-profile, you’re going to be famous for a couple of weeks, and then your career is over and you’ve got to make sure you don’t spend all your money before you die.
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 22: Director Steven Soderbergh (L) and Jules Asner attend HBO’s Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Post Award Reception at The Plaza at the Pacific Design Center on September 22, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
There are certain directors – Spielberg, David Fincher, John McTiernan – who sort of see things in three dimensions, and I was watching their films and sort of breaking them down to see how they laid sequences out, and how they paid attention to things like lens length, where the eyelines were, when the camera moved, how they cut, how they led your eye from one part of the frame to another.
…there’ve been a lot of questions about commercial films and non-commercial films, and I’ve never really made that separation in my mind. There’s no question that when you read a piece of material, you have ideas about how it should be realised … certainly when I read the script for Ocean’s Eleven, I thought if this was realised the way it should, then it would appeal to a lot of people. Then you get involved in a film like Solaris and if you realise it the way it should be realised, then it won’t appeal to a lot of people. But what are you going to do? You have to go at it…
I learned from Richard Lester that as your career goes on, you learn more about how things can go wrong, but you never learn how things can go right. And it’s really disorienting.
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Born January 14, 1974 · Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Birth name Kevin Serge Durand
Spouse Sandra Cho (October 1, 2010 – present)
[on filming Robin Hood] I think the most memorable moment for me was: Russell and I galloped up to the base of this castle that they built and he said, ‘Take a good look at that castle and remember it, because they may not make movies like this anymore.’
Born January 14, 1967 · Islington, London, England, UK
Birth name Emily Margaret Watson
Spouse Jack Waters(1995 – present) (2 children)
QUOTES:
“I wasn’t prepared for the way people responded to ‘Breaking the Waves.’ Suddenly, I was being interviewed and being asked all sorts of questions. All my life, I’ve loved movies, but I didn’t foresee the glamour of the Academy Awards. In England, the awards are reported as straight news. In America, they’re considered the height of glamour.” – On her two 1999 roles, “Angela’s Ashes” and “Cradle Will Rock”, which had Oscar-potential.
I was a normal, rather dutiful child. I didn’t even rebel as a teenager.
On her childhood preparing her for an acting career: “I was taught the value of imagination at an early age. I didn’t have a television. I read a lot of books and developed a good sense of storytelling. I was happy as well, and I think that helped. The more secure you feel, the more unbalanced you can let yourself become.”
Spouses
Terry O’Neill (1982 – March 26, 1987) (divorced, 1 child)
Peter Wolf (August 7, 1974 – 1979) (divorced)
QUOTES:
[on signing a six-picture deal with Otto Preminger that she later got out of] As much as it cost me to get out of the deal with Otto, if I’d had to do those movies with him, then I wouldn’t have done Bonnie and Clyde (1967), or The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), or any of the movies I was suddenly in a position to choose to do. Beyond the movies I might have missed, it would have been a kind of Chinese water torture to have been stuck in five more terrible movies. It’s impossible to assess the damage that might have done to me that early on in my career.
[on playing an alcoholic in Barfly (1987)] This character, who has given over her days and nights to a bottle, is my way back to the light. This is a role that I care deeply about. I haven’t felt this passion for a character since Network (1976). I saw the promise of a comeback for me in the deglamorized face of Wanda, a woman of sweet vulnerability.
[on Supergirl (1984)] The film was really just a send-up, a spoof, and I had a lot of fun with Selena. But every time I tried to do something funny, [director Jeannot Szwarc] wouldn’t let me. He said, “you have to be the straight person”. I always wanted to do comedy but it’s daunting when you’ve not done it before.
I’m just an actor. If it’s drama, I add as much humor as the part will stand. And if it’s a comedy, add as much drama as you can, so it balances out; you don’t wanna be too serious.
I guess people recognize me, but I’m not a household name. Two out of every five people who come up to me know my name. The one thing I don’t want is to be followed by paparazzi.
My first ten years in Hollywood were really tough. I’d be coaching friends who came to me for acting advice, and then they’d make it before I did. I’d still be helping them while they were on movie sets and I had four lines on a TV show.
The joy of ‘Crash’ was that it was all about the work. It was my first real part. Before that, it was a line here and there, maybe a scene. ‘Crash’ was five scenes, a beautiful arc, a little vignette of my own. It really meant something.
Born January 13, 1990 · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Spouse Miley Cyrus (December 23, 2018 – January 28, 2020) (divorced)
QUOTES:
One of the biggest inspirations before I started shooting came from my brother, when he texted me and said, “Hey, fatty, it’s called ‘The Hunger Games’, not ‘The Eating Games’.”. So I started working out a lot more and eating a lot less.
The Hunger Games (2012) absolutely changed my life. It’s brought up so many different questions about my own personal growth and where I was heading. I think, before all of it, I really felt like I had it figured out. Like, you know, it’s going to be fine, I’m this person and I know what I want to be and I know where I want to go. But then it got to the point where I think I started double-questioning everything. It was like, why am I doing this? where is it getting me? what if I do this and then I can do this? I wasn’t living in the moment.
If you’re truly passionate about something you’ll make it happen. If I lose the passion I’ll move onto something else.
It’s all very surreal. I’ve had two very fantastic experiences. In The Lord of the Rings and in Black Hawk Down. I feel very lucky. I’m sort of doubly excited.
I’m rather accident-prone, I have to admit. I’ve broken my back, my ribs, my nose, both my legs, my arm, my wrist, a finger and a toe and cracked my skull three times.
On how he got the part in Black Hawk Down (2001): My character breaks his back, and I had mentioned I had done that when I was up for the part. Who knows why one actor gets a job and another doesn’t? I think it was just good timing that I happened to be there and I had had the experience – I mean, I was lucky.
I broke my back. I fell out of a window… some friends had a roof terrace on the landing before their apartment, and I fell off the drain pipe. It gave way, actually, and I fell three floors. I was told I might not walk again. So, for about four days, I was contemplating that as a serious part of reality. Then they operated, and I walked out of the hospital in about twelve days.
People sometimes mistake being serious with being taken seriously. And, sure, if you have a political point of view, you have every right to share it. But you have to be careful not to get too self-important. You have to find the balance between being entertaining and being preachy. And you’re seeing that at the box office. People aren’t buying it any more. There’s a time and a place, and what we need right now is a little more positivity.
Sometimes your kids say something, and it’s so amazing with insight. There’s something so beautiful in that.
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