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It was awesome and liberating to play a Russian spy.

I would love to play a crazy Russian spy, run with a gun. That's something I would love to do.

I've always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.

I would have loved to have met some former spies, but they don't readily advertise themselves unless they're not living in Moscow, and even then. I'm sure I've met some without realizing it.

I grew up reading the classic novels of Cold War espionage, and I studied Russian history and Soviet foreign policy.

So I started to learn Russian and I was one of those probably way too eager, annoying young actor kids who was trying to change all my lines to Russian, much to the dismay of the director and Nic Cage.

My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.

Coming out of 'Spy Kids,' I immediately wanted to do more grown-up roles, and I was turning down a lot of the kind of younger, cheesier roles.

I had studied Russian in college. I had gotten into it first through literature and then just really found it kind of fascinating; of course, this was during the Cold War. So they were kind of the other great enemy that you grew up hearing about.