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Really, what I'm doing is an attempt to continue the best work of the people I adore: Francis Coppola and Scorsese and Robert Altman and Stanley Kubrick and those amazing directors whose work I grew up with and loved.

Obviously I'd love to work with any of these great directors because every time I've worked with them I've gained a tremendous amount as an actor. Each director has his own way of pushing you towards improving yourself.

There are all kinds of directors I want to work with and all kinds of films that I want to do.

I like so many different directors: Scorsese, Coppola, Cassavetes, Jarmusch, Gus van Sant, Woody Allen and the greats like Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky and among current filmmakers von Trier, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai.

I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.

I keep meeting directors that are so irresistible. I only do irresistible films, because I don't need to act to feel myself alive.

I look for the role that excites me and work with whoever that director happens to be, wherever he wants to shoot the film.

I've worked with a lot of great directors.

I want to work with great directors. I've picked films based on the script or the character and seen them collapse because the directors were not strong visionaries.

I watch movies all the time, so it's hard to pick certain specific directors that have inspired me in the aggregate.