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What surprised me about the Oscars was how familiar it was - because you're in the room with all these people that have inspired you from your childhood to adulthood in the film industry. It feels like you've known them all of your life.

Well, it was the beginning of my film career. It was amazing to me that I got nominated for an Academy Award.

I think early in my career, I didn't choose films that were crappy films, necessarily, but I didn't go out and campaign for smaller, better roles.

There was one film that I really wanted. This was a long time ago; it was a film called 'Fracture.' Ryan Gosling ended up doing it with Anthony Hopkins. It wasn't a giant box-office success, but I really enjoyed the script, and I enjoyed the character. I got pretty close and was kind of disappointed it didn't go my way.

I try not to repeat myself too often, but it's a gamble. 'Fred Claus' had three Oscar winners in it. No business - it was a bad movie.

I never planned to win an Oscar. When I auditioned for 'Ray,' I was just thinking about what a great project it would be.

I don't see a lot of films. I'm quite choosy, but there's certain films that stick out.

I judge movies on how much fun I had while I was doing them. I had a great time on 'The Right Stuff.' Doing that was fantastic. And there was the year I did 'The Rookie' and 'Far From Heaven,' which was amazing because those two different roles were just so far apart.

I'd done about 10 movies before I decided I wanted to make acting the main thrust of my career.