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For me, my first hearing of the script matters. It has to excite me as an actor and as an audience.

I love the script and I just thought it was a great role. Like I say, it's like this - the script is like this sad, funny, desperate love song to the lost American man.

For me, the script is important. If it excites me, I'll do the film.

It could be a great script but the director is not the right person for me to work for at this time. So there are a lot of elements that come into play and a lot of variables, but more than anything it's got to be a great script and a great character.

Generally, if a good script comes in I read it, and if it appeals to me, it appeals to me. And it doesn't have to be anything - it doesn't have to be the main character, it doesn't have to be a huge part. It could be a nice cameo - anything that I think is good and surrounded by good, enthusiastic people.

For me, it's important that the script is good. Then a good director will want to make it.

Well, there's no question that a good script is an absolutely essential, maybe the essential thing for a movie.

It's fun to improvise, but I still think it's better to have a great script, you know, like a Charlie Kaufman script.

There are no great scripts - just great films.

A good script is like a work of art in itself. I've read hundreds of scripts, and good ones are very rare. If the writer has something to say, and a voice, and a plot that matches character, and an emotional trajectory that works, then I'd be an idiot to fool around with it. It's just that few scripts ever are like that.