I think you sometimes have to go hit rock bottom before you can grow and rebuild as a person.
Paul Dano
Sometimes we fall in love with the idea of a person and have trouble seeing the real thing.
In tragedy, it's hard to find a good resolution; it's not black and white: it's a big fog of gray.
I don't have any tattoos.
I don't like to spend a lot of money on haircuts: I'll sometimes grow my hair and get an acting job and get them to cut it for free. I think for a lady, though, it's okay to spend a lot on a haircut.
The world of the homeless is a tough and interesting world.
Let's say honorary favorite New Yorker is John Lennon, and favorite real New Yorker is Biggie, because he's the best.
Robert De Niro's sort of like a surfer: he doesn't really force anything. So if he catches the wave, or something spills out - to watch a guy be a force at what he does. He has a good worth ethic.
I do think the first time you read a script, that gut response is very important, and that probably plants a seed that continues to blossom throughout the whole experience.
I go down to the dive bar around the corner when I go out. I don't go to the showbiz parties.
I love Brooklyn; it's a part of who you are.
I'd love to do a really broad comedy at some point.
I feel like I have to be responsible for what I'm participating in or putting out into the world.
One thing you notice is, there's a lot of people with raw talent, and then there's people who take that talent and work hard.
I'm not a person who needs to chit-chat between takes by any means.
I'd always been fascinated by people who allow themselves to be so rude and irritated and foul-mouthed and hostile, but usually you can sense there's something vulnerable beneath them - a shield they use to protect that vulnerable side. Finally, when they expose that soft spot, it's kind of touching.
Spring and fall in New York are the best seasons here to get out and about. I like the little park in Dumbo between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridge. I like Prospect Park.
I love cereal. I eat several bowls a day, mostly a few late at night.
The hardest thing about working with your partner is that the work starts to become first.
I like movies a lot, and I feel really excited when I see a movie that moves me the right way.
I like a restaurant called Bruci, and there's some really nice people who work there and good food. They change their menu a lot, so maybe that's what keeps me coming back. I never know what I'm going to get.
I'm very low-maintenance.
At the heart of drama is conflict.
There's a lot of people that I would love to work with. There's a lot of different kinds of parts I wanna play. As your career progresses, you hope that you get some more opportunity or some more choice.
I started acting pretty young, so I haven't had too many odd jobs. But I used to sell candy out of my locker in middle school.
It's hard to talk about acting because I don't think it's quite as explicit as a lot of people might think. And that's probably the best thing about it.
In life, you have to keep certain parts of yourself in check because you want to be a decent human being. But one of the guilty pleasures of acting is that sometimes you get to let a little something out that you don't in life because it's not right.
As people, no matter what we are doing, your whole body is living and breathing.
One of my favorite things I read was John Steinbeck's journals while he was writing 'East of Eden,' which was so cool.
My first paying job might have been doing a play, actually. My mom paid me to dress up as a flounder at my sister's 'Little Mermaid' - themed birthday party when I was little.
When you repeat yourself so many times, even if you're speaking the truth, the repetition starts to feel false. Sometimes, you just feel like the words you're speaking, even if they once had meaning, have lost it. And that makes you feel kind of silly.
I'm a sucker for period pieces. There is always great opportunity for research and to delude yourself into feeling like you are in a different time and place.
On 'There Will Be Blood,' I was cast at the last minute. I had 3 and a half to 4 days to get ready for the first day. I just went for it, threw myself in there and gave it everything I had. That was just guts and instinct, not a lot of preparation.
I like characters that make me feel challenged and sort of inspired.
There are maybe 100 actors I look up to, but my first two favourite actors were Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson.
With somebody like Harrison Ford, they're so commanding and confident, and you know, he does have a certain power or charisma, and those are things that are sort of ineffable.
'Little Miss Sunshine' was really important to me.
I guess sometimes fear is a good thing. It's a really good motivator.
Homeless people really upset me when I was little. A lot of kids have this reaction, but I would get really worried or sad or concerned or cry.
There's that thing that if you want to have any kind of lasting love, I think you have to love the whole person and not just the parts of them that you choose.
George C. Scott, man, was a powerful dude.
I think control is a two-way street; sometimes people want to control things to keep them safe if they are afraid of life.
I've been fortunate to work with several actors and directors who I look up to, and learned from each of them.
I'm not a big shopper. I'm a pretty simple dresser, and that's not my pleasure go-to thing, looking for clothes.
I think that one of the strangest things about being an actor is, it's almost freelance work.
As an actor, I always feel you basically have to be able to delude yourself.
People think memorizing lines is hard, when that's the last thing you worry about. You get that done, and then you've got to worry about the internal stuff, which is the challenging part.
Films can be entertaining without shying away from exploring something. They can be magical and have fantasy, but also can have enough reality that you can be really emotionally invested.
I mean, to feel in good hands as an actor... it's the best feeling.
I went to private school in Manhattan, and at a young age, they made us do public speaking. For some reason, I was good at standing in front of the class and speaking.
