My favorite actors are actors who are enigmatic and mysterious and never make the obvious choice in terms of the projects they do or who they work with or their craft. But I think that the less I know about an actor, the more chance I have of allowing their own persona to kind of slip away so I can get completely lost in the character they're playing, and the more that people think they know about your personal life, the more difficult it becomes to preserve that.
The great thing about acting is, because you're constantly playing other characters and exploring yourself because you have to find those other characters in yourself, you sort of broaden as a person over your life because you've been other people. So you can empathize with many different sorts of people. It's great in that way and I hope, therefore, as you get older as an actor, you not only get more interesting because you lived more, but you get a bit wiser as a person.
But I've always felt that the less you know about an actor's personal life, the more you can get involved in the story in which he's playing a character. And I don't like to see movies where you know about everything that happens behind the scenes. I can't engage in the story if I know what's going on in the actor's head.
Because of television, people are now more exposed about actors - one gets to know about actor's personal life. People know that we are just playing characters.
I believe we all have a responsibility to try to help other people in this world. To me, my ability to help and to do good for others will only increase if I'm more known and get to that really super elite level. That would be the huge benefit for me. It would put me in a position where I could just help more people.
Yeah, um, I do twitter because I want people to, you know, get to know me, my fans, or my fans to get to know me, you know, just see what type of person I am. You know, hopefully be more on an intimate level with me as opposed to a distant level.
For me, I need people who will respect my vision and will back it and won't go changing things without letting me know. I would love some people who I feel like I could work with on a personal level as well.
Sometimes perception is almost more important than the skill level of an actor. And if you give too much away, you have nothing to take for yourself and put onscreen. If people feel like they know you too well, they won't be able to indentify with the character you're trying to portray. Or they'll feel that you're just playing yourself, and then you just become a personality actor. And that's the death of any actor.
For me, I'm constantly writing stuff that is what I'm dealing with on a personal, psychological level. And I think that I bring that to whatever I'm doing, whether it's being an actor or a writer or whatever it is I'm doing. I think you can't help but do that.
If my son was an actor I would tell him, "Don't let people know as much about you as I let people know about me." Because I think professionally, it's an easier road. That would be something I would tell a young actor. But it's cool.
When you meet people that you know from other films - as often happens to me, and as tends to happens to you when you're an actor, you constantly meet people that you've seen in other films. But when it's people who've kind of had a seismic effect on your life, it's quite extraordinary.
It's the same with people knowing absolutely everything there is to know about an actor. I actually think the more personal information you have about an actor, the more you have to carve out for yourself when you go to a movie and see them in it.
It's the same with people knowing absolutely everything there is to know about an actor. I actually think the more personal information you have about an actor, the more you have to carve out for yourself when you go to a movie and see them in it
CBT is really a miracle. I've seen it help a lot of people, and one of the reasons I'm speaking out is that I don't feel like enough people know it. Through my work, I constantly come across other people who have various forms of anxiety or panic - it's much more common, I think, than people realize - and not all of them even really know about CBT.
Half the people think I write Obama's speeches; the other half think I'm on 'Entourage.' So I'm at the level of fame where people kind of know who I am, but they confuse me with other people.
Twitter for me is a form of entertainment for the followers and it's also a source of information. I try to tweet things that I think might make people smile, or to share information that I want to get across, like an event like this that can inspire other people to get involved. I try to mix it up. I think that is a reflection of me - a family man, an actor, and a philanthropist.