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You always take a little bit back with you at the end of the day. I always put a little bit of myself into the characters, too. You find parallels, points of connection, things like that. But I'm not an actor who gets so incredibly haunted by my characters that I can't come back.

When I say 'yes' to a movie it's usually because, to a greater or lesser extent, it's because I'm enthusiastic about the character. How well that character ultimately comes off depends on a lot of things: your relationship with the director and so on. But at first, you're on board because you think you can do something with it.

You have to be completely in the character, and that's so hard to do. That's why, when they call, 'Cut!,' you often feel yourself shift. Unless you're Daniel Day Lewis, who stays in character all the time, there's a switch that happens.

I know people think that I always play these characters who are in control and can chop someone's head off with a look.

Sometimes I can't get out of the character because the story is very intense.

I feel like a good director provokes you to ask questions about your character, but doesn't answer them for you.

In every character you play, as much as you hate to admit it as an actor, but there's an element of you that you bring to it.

I always try to approach character first and foremost viscerally.

I love working with new directors. There's so much drive and effort. It still comes down to the character for me, but if it's a character I really want to play, I would never not do the project because of a new director.

In my first film, Five Corners, I played a very scary, violent crazed character, and it exposed me to a lot of directors.