I do a lot of teen shows and voice over work for animation, so when I got the part in 'The Number 23,' it was really cool because now I get to be in a movie with Jim Carrey. Acting in this movie was really a learning experience for me.
There was a thing in the Andy Kaufman movie that Jim Carrey [Man On The Moon] about how he would do it. I didn't even see the movie. I read the script. But someone asked me, "Do you know what the best part of the Jim Carrey/Andy Kaufman movie is?" And I said, "me lee see ree bee." I just knew that would be the best part.
I'd say people that really inspired me at first were like, Dustin Hoffman, Jim Carrey... serious Jim Carrey though.
It was really really neat to make the movie because there were mentally challenged actors in the movie. So that was really really cool to work with them and they were always really happy, and they made everybody really happy on the set too.
I'm not really a movie star. No matter what I do in acting, whether I'm good, how much work I get, whatever, I never will be a movie star. Because I never think of myself as one. You are a movie star because you think of yourself as a movie star and always have.
The hardest thing about movie acting is that if you're playing a character who changes within the movie, you've got to do that, but you've got to do it out of sequence, because we never have gotten to shoot in sequence, and that's really, really tough.
I am so delighted when I get to see a really good movie. In that experience the artifice of movie making, the photography or the cutting style, falls away because you are inside the movie.
No, I don't regret doing anything, and, you know, at the time, 'Monster-in-Law' was... I was so excited to get that part. I got to be in a big movie for a few months. I got work, and everybody on it was really nice, and it was a fun experience.
People ask me what it was like working with Jim Carrey. Well, I never really saw too much of him. I would talk to him on the set, but I was looking at a Grinch facade. It was his voice and all, but... Jim is amazing to watch in front of the camera. I learned a lot from him. He was also always very nice and generous to me.
I really love movie soundtracks and stuff like that. That's really a huge part of any movie. I actually think about... that this would be cool in a movie or something, like when I'm writing a song, or something you know?
A good movie is a movie that you could see over and over again, not a movie that wins a Oscar, or a movie that makes a lot of money. It's a movie that you personally can watch over and over again. That, to me, is a measure of a good movie.
I went into Xanadu going, 'I really dislike this movie - let me try to make it something wonderful,' but with 'The Band Wagon,' I really revere this movie. It's really a beautiful movie musical. And, yet, because I'm a writer and look at it that way, I see that there are faults in it.
When the movie was done, Number Five was crated up. Eric took him over to Germany; displayed him over there because Germans really liked this movie. It was very popular with them.
For some reason, my main movie, Lady Sings the Blues, to me really isn't me. I really can let go of Diana Ross when I see the movie. I'm really objective when I'm watching it. I liked that movie so much. That movie was like magic so that when I'm looking at it I'm really not seeing myself, I'm seeing the actress. I'm seeing another person, not the me of me.
Acting is a life experience. I'm always learning things when I'm making a movie. So the fame part of it is fine when you consider what you get out of this job.
It was never my dream to be famous. I didn't start acting to be a movie star. I started in the theater and my desire was to get better at my craft. It's still my desire. I don't consider myself a movie star, nor do I really have the desire to be one. I'm just an entertainer. An actor who works hard at his craft. Whatever labels people give me, that's not really me or part of my process.
I don't believe in leaving a scene in because it was really hard to shoot, or because it's the reason you took the movie, or because you always wanted to work with an actor . . . If it's not making the movie work, get rid of it.