Love is such a powerful subject matter because it comes in so many different shapes and sizes. It's about timing, fate, failure, redemption.
Jim Sturgess
I'm not an outdoors person by instinct or nature. I'm more of a city person.
Definitely River Phoenix is somebody that I thought, 'This guy is very cool.' I wanted to be like him when I was a kid.
Sometimes you read a script, and you just think, 'Wow, I would love to go and tell that story, and I don't even care what happens to the film, I would just love that experience.' And often, that mentality makes a great film.
Out of every 10 scripts I get sent, seven are fairly generic about an American guy who gets the girl and is involved in underground espionage activity.
I could see when I was filming '21' that it was going to go a direction I wasn't comfortable with it going.
You find most of the interesting stories are the ones that are slightly harder to get made.
'Upside Down' is a fantasy love story. It's about love at first sight - when you just fall in love instantly and will battle any obstacle to be with that girl.
To spend time with Ed Harris... he's an acting hero of mine, so that's a big deal for me.
As you wake up to sort of Morocco coming to life, and you drive a two hour journey through the desert as the sun is rising over the sand dunes... I saw landscapes and visual stuff that I'll never forget. It was special.
Come on, you can't do a film about an upside-down world and not have an upside-down kiss!
I'm drawn to cinema, especially when you're on a project that feels like it's going to be a challenge.
Most of my friends are from the music scene.
I was quite badly behaved at school - I remember cutting class - and acting was a way of channelling energy.
I've probably written about three albums that no one will ever hear.
It kind of sounds pretentious, but a film I find deeply romantic is 'Buffalo '66,' which is a film by Vincent Gallo. It's about how you break down all those barriers and expose yourself and open yourself up to ultimately being hurt.
It was when '21' came out. I was in Los Angeles and my face was everywhere: on buses, on posters, on the side of buildings. I didn't feel that blown away by it. I was still hungry to prove myself. I realised that quite quickly, that I had to find something that challenged me from an acting point of view.
When you meet somebody and you have an instant connection - why is that? Maybe you've met before? Maybe you've met in another life? Anything's possible.
I'd always been quite wary of doing a romantic comedy. They all seem the same to me.
I moved to Manchester to join a band and ended up getting into acting, and I moved back to London to become an actor and ended up joining a band.
You finish a project and start looking for something that might interest you. A lot of the films I've made are a reaction to something I've done right before.
I really don't like the idea of people knowing what I am doing. I find telling everybody what you had for breakfast is really uninspiring.
British actors come at acting from a slightly different angle. Because a lot of the films are cast out there, they are so used to the angle from which the Americans, and certainly the young guys from L.A., are coming at it, that I think it's interesting for them to find these English actors who maybe approach acting from a different place.
It's always interesting to me to tell stories that come from difficult political climates.
The films that I really liked and the ones that really blew my mind when I was younger were independent films. They're like great records to me.
I never met Paul McCartney.
In the world of independent filmmaking, you're never quite sure what's happening when and where.
You just try and do as much variation and as much difference and as much as possible, so you put yourself out there to try anything, really. As long as you feel you're going to get something out of the experience, it's all worth it.
Certainly after '21' I was getting the opportunity to make a lot of money.
I didn't want the words 'Spider-Man' attached to my name in any shape or form. Especially a singing one.
After 'The Way Back,' which was so epic and so rich, it was like, 'What will I do now?'
When I was younger, I looked to actors like they were from another planet. You couldn't believe you could be anywhere near that world. It was exciting. I kind of like that.
I was quite naughty at school. I was always in the back of the class messing about with the Bunsen burner rather than paying attention.
There are times when I feel incredibly loved and connected, and times when I feel alone. I think that's natural for all of us.
Home is here in London and always has been.
