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When you first start out as an actor, you're just looking for a good part. As time goes on, if you're being held responsible for the movies themselves, you're looking for a good script all around.

I don't think any actor has the luxury of knowing exactly what scripts are going to turn out well and what ones aren't. It would be wonderful to have that particular skill, and maybe people like Tom Cruise have it more than most, but you go into each project hoping that a good, if not great, film will come out the other end.

As an actor, you want to do the best job possible, and you want the best scripts possible because it makes life more interesting.

If making movies was easier, there'd be a lot more good movies. So you kind of learn that if it's just a good script, or if it's just a good producer, that's not always enough. You need an entire team of creative people coming together.

I have an idealistic approach to acting. I want to be great at it, but you can't be great if the scripts are not there and the director doesn't know what he's doing.

You have to read scripts and audition and develop relationships. It takes a long time to develop a body of work but over the last 25 years I guess I've done that many movies. In hindsight it may seem effortless, but there's a lot of work that goes into it.

Everything you care about is getting the next step right: getting the script right, finding the right actors, shooting it. Then you spend half a year in a dark room editing your film, and you don't talk to anybody.

Usually when you get a script from actors, you don't have high expectations.

You work really hard to make it, and maybe you get some acclaim, but then you realize there are certain limitations as an actor.

When you first start, you just want to get a job. It goes from that to really deciding what kind of work you want to do and what kind of actor you want to be - and it only gets harder.