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I was always such an incredible fan of John Woo, I just wanted to do this film with him.

For John Woo, it is quite difficult to make a movie in Hollywood in his own style. Because Hollywood is based on a producer system, it is difficult for a director to express himself using his own style of filmmaking.

I never thought I would say this, but I'm desperate to do an action film.

John Woo is a very nice and kind person; he gives almost no direction at all, trusting me to come up with the character. But when I think of him, I think of explosions!

I think what makes a good action film is a story that gets you involved. Just action, by itself, is not going to work.

A lot of action movies today seem to have scenes that just lead up to the action.

Action films can be like watching paint dry. You can just die in the trailer waiting for them to set up a shot, then you go out for a few minutes or an hour of endurance testing.

As for action movies, I did Tarzan, and I'm also about to shoot Meltdown, which John Carpenter wrote.

If you take my performance or my understanding of the role and my appreciation for story and then dress it in CGI, that I guess becomes an action film.

There are wonderful films that become studio films, but they're conceived independently. That's where the action is. 'Being John Malkovich' is a great example of a picture you wouldn't think the studios would want, and it turns out to be a movie that touches everybody's heart.