Within time, you get comfortable with yourself and with the unknown - that we're not going to know until that time comes. And that's enough for me. I wrestle with this a lot even now because I don't want to step on anyone's religion. My family is still very dedicated. At the same time, I take great issue with it when it starts defining policy or ultimately becomes separatist. ... It's been the basis of our main conflicts throughout history.
I was very curious about the world even at a young age, and I don't know at what point I became aware that other cultures believed in different religions, and my question was, 'Well, why don't they get to go to heaven then?' And the answer was always, 'Well, everyone gets a chance - meaning at the word of God as it was described to me then. And that didn't sit well with me then. But in times of trouble or discord, it's a great comfort. And it wasn't till I left home that I really came to the conclusion that it didn't make sense to me for many other reasons.
I dare make those comparisons, but we often said 'the making of' would be as interesting if not more interesting than the film.
I just take credit for being smart enough to find a guy as smart as Benett [Miller] to tell the story [of "Moneyball"].
The scouts [in "Moneyball"] could lend an authenticity that's even beyond what we had on the page.
We had a work session [in "Moneyball"] where about 30 scouts came in and we're all riffing. And after it, [director] Bennett Miller said: Look at these faces and this is what we have to got to do. We got to get these guys in the scene.
Though 'Moneyball' had the talents of screenwriters Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin going for it, they weren't baseball insiders.
I like Billy Beane for the fact that he - his idiosyncrasies, that he can't watch the games without getting too emotional, that he often has food down his shirt, that he tends to break a few chairs now and then. I mean, these things make him human.
Billy Beane was a guy who had been devalued by the sport as a player and now is working as a GM for a small-market team.There is such a gulf in what these teams have to spend on talent [that] they can never play equally - they can never have a true competition.
For me a film is at its best when you can start filling in the story with your own life experience.
Once you get older, you get a little closer to yourself, intimate. I've always been very aware of that, more conscious of who I am, how I fit in the thing as opposed to trying to emulate someone else. Though, sometimes I try to emulate De Niro all the time, who is someone I could never be.
I am very interested in architecture. I've been asked if I'd ever direct, but me, I'd rather build. It's very similar to directing, because you get to walk among this piece of art, to live in it, be surrounded by it, which is just thrilling.
Each misstep leads to the next correct step.
Democracy doesn't work unless people are well informed, and I don't know that we are. People just don't have the time. Most people's daily lives are just about surviving. Most people don't have time to really study [crucial] issues.
We, in America, love a story - we need a story to get involved in. But then everything becomes more about how the story protects a certain perception as we pick sides.
We in America have some grand ideals - and some very strong ideals - but a lot of times, those ideals are used for marketing.
You just have to get one misstep - that's an easy way to fall into caricature. Bad caricature.
So much of making movies is about discovery on the day, what you're figuring out. If you know everything going in, then it's not worth doing - it's already done. I'm interested in finding people who I think have a voice - and a very specific voice.
It's hard to be surprised by a film. It's hard to be surprised by another actor or by a director when you've seen enough and been around. So when I am, or when I forget that I'm watching someone's movie, or when I don't know how someone made a certain turn that I didn't expect... You know, I'm in.
The greatest thing an actor can experience is discovery. The greatest thing an artist can walk away with is to learn something about themselves and the world and this was one of those.
Family comes first so I only have this specific window of time available to me and because of that I actually get more done.
My main concern is quality and I think there is quality to be found in all categories of filmmaking.
I got into [producing] to be part of stories that wouldn't necessarily be right for me as an actor.
I come from the belief that all good films find their time whether it's on opening week or sometime later. That's certainly true with some of my favourite films that might relate to this [The Assassination of Jesse James] film in terms of cadence like Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, or McCabe & Mrs Miller or Days of Heaven. I found them 10 to 20 years after they were made.
The choice or decision to take on a film certainly isn't calculated as far as doing something that will be successful against something that will have a smaller audience. It's all a gamble to me, I don't bet on the horses; I just go with the story that speaks to me and that I feel strongly about which is this one [The Assassination of Jesse James].
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