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If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

Actors come in, and they have their own take on things, and you have to adjust on the fly to make sure everything still works structurally and dramatically.

Trust me, it has been anything but easy to make it as an actor.

I come from a tradition where the writer writes a play for the actors, rather than for himself, and the dialogue is made to work onstage, so it needs actors to help shape it. So you never get a play right straightaway.

I'm not so bothered by the audition process anymore; in fact, I use it. It's a time for the actor to actually get to the know the director and the producers a little bit, too.

There's nothing like a play. It's so immediate and every performance is different. As an actor, you have the most control over what the audience is seeing.

When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.

Some actors come to the set ready to do their parts a certain way.

I've never pursued a role. I always hear stories about actors going after parts and I'm, like, 'How do they do that?' It seems so weird. It seems like a total myth or something.

Basically, the actor's job is to pay attention to the script.