I only really cast people who are desperate to be in it - who were dying to be in it, whose talent I believed in and were dead ready to do the work that was necessary.
I read the final Wallander novel, 'The Troubled Man,' not long after it was published.
I love thrillers, and I always have.
I'm a devotee of Stephen Sondheim. I think he's a genius.
There's always something to think about in terms of problems that are dark and important and immediate and scary.
Shakespeare is rhythmic; he is musical in the sense that he likes poetry, and he's musical because he constantly refers to settings where there's singing and dancing.
The records - what little we know about Shakespeare, including the records of the plays in his playhouse - were often the story of how quickly they came off if they didn't work. They had to move on. They were absolutely led by box office.
I fondly remember good times working on 'Thor.'
I did not expect to be allowed to be an actor, to be allowed to eventually direct things.
I liked the fact that 'My Week With Marilyn' wasn't a biopic.
I'm by no means an opera buff.
'Thor' has got several big battles in it, a reckless, headstrong young hero who has to confront his past and deal with a complicated relationship with his father, it has lots of savage Europeans hacking each other to death at various points, and all of this sounded very much like 'Henry V.'
I am very much looking forward to new adventures - including, I hope, Broadway - sooner rather than later.
I'm just a normal working class boy from Belfast.
I think the best actors are the most generous, the kindest, the greatest people and at their worst they are vain, greedy and insecure.
It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory.
I was a big admirer of F.D.R. He saved Britain.
One of the problems with Shakespeare is that you can never give him a ring.
What you want is the opportunity to work and an audience. Prizes after that are just a great big bonus.
I did 'Celebrity' by Woody Allen. I did 'The Gingerbread Man' with Robert Altman. These were big talents.
Do you know what I feel about Dr. Who's? I feel the same way as I do about the Bonds. I love them all. I love them all! I don't have favorites.
I went to Moscow and met some slightly powerful and scary people.
Shakespeare's always on my dance card if it can be.
I think that short films often contain an originality, a creative freedom, an energy and an invention that is inspiring and entertaining. I think they are, as Shakespeare put it, a good deed in a naughty world.
Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports.
One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality.
I'm very conscious of the fact the directing career has taken some odd turns. Maybe there's enough bulk where I'm now pigeonholed in the 'eclectic box.'
In any given project, there are a few moments where there is the usual disappointment, as it were, when you look in the mirror, and you realize you're not 23 and looking like Brad Pitt.
Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before... Whether it's playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that.
The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There's still some silliness.
In the course of my lifetime, that world went from violence to a kind of peace.
'Jack Ryan' is a very fast-paced, very contemporary, very action-driven thriller.
I suppose, at 50, you value things in a different way. So you value connections, you value your friendships, you value your health, and you are much more aware of time passing.
I've always loved pure, silly slapstick comedy. It always makes me laugh.
What I've found about 'Cinderella' is that what it provokes in an audience is really extraordinary. It appears to be a deceptively simple tale, but I've heard nothing but people drawing all different things out of it.
I don't know that the Brits have the monopoly on being organized, but they do have a way of working with which I'm familiar. It's not necessarily the best way, but it's a way.
I like to cast actors I admire, one's that are talented. Each one will bring something new to the part. This play has been done thousands of times and now certain characters are too familiar.
A brother who is unhappy is a dangerous relative to have.
Even in the case of a god, audiences - paradoxically - enjoy recognizing the human traits.
In Northern Ireland, I truly, effortlessly, knew who I was. I knew where I belonged. I felt completely and utterly secure.
The glory of 70mm is the sharpness of the image it offers.
My experience of great storytelling, working with classics, is just finding a way to present it simply but let the story do its own work, or be an invite to the audience's imagination.
In the hands of a great poet, words have ways of affecting us in ways we don't understand.
I think A Midsummer Night's Dream would be terrific because of the transformations that occur. Or The Tempest, things like that. Extraordinary larger than life or supernatural element.
I did 'Love's Labour's Lost' in the theater and found it to be riotously funny.
Actors are the best and the worst of people. They're like kids. When they're good, they're very very good. When they're bad they're very very naughty.
At the end of every stage performance, the audience all applaud me for doing my job, but I have friends who work in offices who don't get that.
There are some amazing stories from all over this country, where people's work and contribution has been acknowledged. To be part of that is an absolutely fantastic feeling.
I don't know that there is too far, actually. I think there's only too bad. If it's bad you've gone too far.
