[on tabloid coverage of his life] It feels like being in a soap opera that you were unwittingly cast in and you have no choice about it. I get to watch my life like everyone else and think. “I can’t believe they did that”. And, for whatever reason, you become less special for movie audiences. It cheapens the brand if you want to look at it in a really crass sense. But I figure it has to go away at some point. Eventually someone will come along and have a sex tape or someone will play grab-ass with some kids and I’ll be off page one.

God help me if I ever do another movie with an explosion in it. If you see me in a movie where stuff is exploding you’ll know I’ve lost all my money.

[on his career path and choice of movies] I have definitely noticed that I care less about certain things. Other actors are like, “You can’t do that”, or “You can’t do this. This will position you in the wrong way.” That’s not my thing. And obviously so, because you can see I don’t craft or cultivate my career.

I remember back when I was a kid there was a comic strip called Plastic Man. His body was elastic and he could make his extremities as long as he wanted. As a youngster I didn’t fully appreciate. But I’m now thinking Plastic Man was probably pretty popular with the ladies.

[on turning down the offer to direct Superman: Man of Steel (2013)] – The one benefit of having done all kinds of movies as an actor is, you learn the pros and cons of being tempted to do a really big movie because it costs a lot of money.

[on “Argo” and the relationship between Hollywood and the government] There is a symbiotic relationship. People make movies about military. When you go on a tour with the military all these guys are movie buffs. Movies are a big part of our culture. The military, the movies, and our intelligence services are inventing things. For movies, it’s for art and entertainment. For intelligence services, it’s for God knows what. That’s one of the themes of this story: the power of storytelling, whether it’s political theater, relating to our children, or trying to get people out of danger. Telling stories is incredibly powerful. There’s a shot I really like where there’s this firing squad, then you go to this read through, and then there’s a firearm, a rifle, and a camera. Hopefully this is subtle, but that suggests the camera is more powerful than the gun. I think that’s been really worn out with the Youtube era.