We're part of a greater humanity and we can actually affect the world by the choices we make once we leave the theater.
I try to do what I call the three E's - educate, entertain, and enlighten. If you don't entertain, no one will show up. But you also have to educate, because people want to discover specific things about a world unlike their own - whether it's how hard it is to go to the moon or how scary it is to be on Omaha Beach.
A story has the opportunity to enlighten us, because as we connect the extraordinary moments on film with the ordinary moments of our lives, we ask ourselves, "What am I going to do the next time I'm scared? What would it be like to say goodbye to my family for the last time?"
The easiest thing to do is to rag on the media, because it isn't doing a very good job right now. It is so much easier to profit from celebrating the worst aspects of ourselves. Acting strikes me as the antithesis of that. We can examine the worst aspects of ourselves, but we don't have to celebrate them.
I would like to think I've reflected the audience's lives somehow, though it's in this big, false, glamorous arena of movies. I hope people see themselves somehow up on the screen.
Hold the mirror up to nature. Human behavior is worthy of examination and celebration.
My son is a gentleman and a professional who is pursuing something difficult. Yet the only thing he has ever asked me for is advice - never favors. He has just said, "What do you think I should do, Dad?" It's extraordinary to me that my son would listen to and have faith in whatever wisdom I can offer.
People ask me all the time, "What kind of father are you?" I won't know until my kids are grown.
I hope my kids understand that they're not operating in a normal world. And yet there are principles they have to adhere to that are normal - like decency, choosing between right and wrong, and honesty. That's important stuff, whether you're flying first-class or not.
My work is really a blast. When it stops being a blast, then it ain't no fun no more!
All that most parents hope is that their children are happy, funny, well adjusted, and have a passion for something in their lives. What would negate everything is if the next generation that we're responsible for has a passionless existence. And that's cause for occasional sleepless nights.
I know how the Academy Awards works: It's a card game, and I'm in the toss-up category.
If I stopped having passion, I'd be done.
I have faith that a script is going to hit me like a ton of bricks, and when that happens, it's undeniable that I should choose the role.
I'm not looking for anything. If you start looking for something specific, then you take providence right out of it. You can't completely control it. Otherwise you'd make the same kind of movie over and over again, which some people say I've done.
Without question, we make choices - and those choices have consequences. So can you control your own destiny? To a degree, certainly. Must you have faith in serendipity? Without question, you'd better. Otherwise you're foolish.
Let's not pretend there isn't a huge industry driven by the choices made by editors and writers who decide what a story is.
Everyone says, "You have to work at relationships." Sometimes you've got to work, but if you're working 60 percent of the time and only enjoying it 40 percent...
A lot of people would flee from what they think is award-show cheesiness, and I don't. I often joke that my speeches are very personal moments that play themselves out in front of billions of people.
I view my wife as my lover, and we have a bond that goes beyond words like wife or girlfriend or mother.
I have a woman who teaches me what love is every day. Maybe that sentiment is possible to fake, but for me it's really true.
I was never intimidated by change. I was like an army brat who had lived all around the world.
There's such an advantage to being involved in the day-to-day details of each other's lives. It's a marvelous fabric to exist in.
Work in the theater is more fun than fun.
Before you go into what is essentially a competition, you have to have that confidence. You have to ask yourself, "Are they looking for a guy my height? My age? I've got a shot." And if there are nine guys auditioning and they're all gorgeous, I have an advantage, because gorgeous guys are a dime a dozen. But if they need someone else - like a goofy guy with bad hair who is just okay - then that's me. And finally, the other 2 percent who audition are geniuses that I could never touch.
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