I only made two studio movies, that was a long time ago and obviously I removed myself. I think some of that is geographical. I live in New York and I want to work there, it's as simple as that.
Because of my own family's service (in the U.S. Army, Navy, and Massachusetts and New York National Guard), I am a strong supporter of the military and do believe that there are just wars.
If I can hit No. 1 on the 'New York Times' best-seller list, I'm thinking of having the entire list tattooed on my body somewhere. It would be fabulous.
I sang a lot in college - I was in a choral group in college. But, then, when I moved to New York, I really just concentrated on acting.
Absolutely nothing brings out the killer instinct in the upper crust of New York Society like a charity function.
Living New York, everyone has a million hustles, so I was doing party promoting, working the doors at parties, doing that whole nightlife thing.
I have one rave New York Times review framed next to a flop Los Angeles Times review. And it's for the same show. These people watched the same show. That's what happens. They love it, they hate it.
I'm a pretty private person. I'm not "out there" out there. From living in New York City, I developed a certain awareness that you have to have when you live by yourself.
Boston fans - and New York fans are the same - it doesn't matter what you do outside of baseball, they don't forgive or forget that you play in pinstripes and they don't care about your interests off the field.
I've been trained in dancing and I used to be quite good, though I am a bit rusty right now. But I could probably brush up in a couple of months. The funny thing is that I actually took classes from Savion Glover, who worked in Happy Feet, when I was a kid. Isn't that wild? I was part of a selected group that was brought into New York from New Jersey (which is where I'm from) to study, every Saturday: ballet, jazz and tap. It was a musical comedy group.
When I moved to New York in my 20s, I didn't have an obnoxious ego, but it was huge! I'll thought, "I'll never die and I can do anything."
I miss the noise in New York: the sound of taxis and that constant buzz the city has.
I remember getting out of grad school and coming to New York and not wanting to get a teaching job because I wanted to work on my own, to develop my own ideas. There isn't that time now. Artists are exhibiting while they are still in grad school. There isn't that safety cushion.
Because it's in and about New York City, I knew 'Ex Machina' was going to have to continually mix the mundane and the fantastic.
I mean, do you know what you get when you call a suicide hotline in New York city? A busy signal. Literally.
We wanted to premiere it in New York, because New York is sort of the home of the Jim Henson Company and it's sort of the tone and flavor, always, of the puppet work that we've done traditionally. And that's what brought us here and now we're here.
It was ironic that there I was finally painting the pictures I'd always wanted to paint and feeling very much at home in the countryside, and I ended up working in New York City, which is definitely the archetypal city.
Certainly, nothing would stop me coming home for Christmas, if I can. But I've worked a lot in theatre, and in theatre in New York, we work Christmas Day a lot of the time as well.
There's nothing surprising about me. I'm dull. I am a fan of the New York subway. I love it.
I did New York, I Love You which is a very personal film for me. My most personal film, but it's not like a film I've ever made. I would never do that film as a feature, for instance, because it's not very commercial of an idea.
Gian Luigi Polidoro and his girlfriend had written this script, it was an American comedy, and they decided I was the guy to play the part. I was young, they offered me the lead in the film, and I said, "Sure, I'll do it." And I'm telling you, there is a movie waiting to be made about the making of a movie like that, particularly at that time in New York. I mean, we shot all over the streets of New York without permits. We would literally grab a shot and run. But Rent Control... I think the total cost was $100,000, and to this director's credit, I think it looks like $200,000.
It was kind of an amazing class. I went to the Strasberg Institute in New York for a little while after I got there, and I've never seen anybody who was in any of my classes there ever again. I mean, that's not to say they didn't become somebody. I'm not sure. I mean, Sam Jackson could've been in my class, for all I remember.
I wanted to look right. I remember a review - a very positive one - in The New York Times that said I was so good in the role [Earl Mills] that I "even managed to overcome a terrible red wig." I wanted to write her and tell her about the agony I'd gone through with the perm, but I thought better of it.
John Logan is maybe the No. 1 screenwriter in the world today, not to mention that he won a Tony for Best Play for Red. So he may just be the best writer period right now. He wrote The Aviator, and I was in New York doing a play, and he asked if they would see me for the film, just meet with me. 'Cause that's what Martin Scorsese does.
I did a great show Off-Broadway called Leave It To Beaver Is Dead that was at the Public Theater in New York. It was written by Des McAnuff, who's an illustrious director now, and it starred... Well, I was in it, Mandy Patinkin, Dianne Wiest, Saul Rubinek, and Maury Chaykin. It was an amazing show. But it was definitely ahead of its time, and people didn't quite get it.
