It becomes more and more popular to call actors who play characters character actors. But I've always been somebody who is much more invested in who I am playing than how they look.

An actor has to be very, very careful, as one of the most wonderful props - and actors love props - is a cigarette. There's so much to do with it: you can bring it up to your face, play with the smoke. It's just the greatest - ever since I was 16 and in acting school in England, I've been playing around with cigarettes.

The power of television - it's so present in our lives, we don't even know how powerful it is.

I am a smoker, I'm ashamed to say. I had given it up for many years, then picked it up again. It's a horrible habit. I struggle with myself all the time. And I love to smoke.

The climate informs the character.

It's not exactly an interview that's going on [in documentary]. I guess we do ask Edward Snowden some questions and we're recording him answering them and so on like that.

I'm very, very serious about what I do. I think there are a lot of people out there sort of thinking it's anybody's game. You know, You pick up a camera and you make a movie. My experiences over the years have taught me there's a lot more than that to making a film - there's also getting the film seen, and all kinds of complex realities.

As an actor, you live a little bit of a cloistered life. It's a lonely life. You oddly, strangely find yourself all alone, quite often, with a lot of time to think.

Being an actor on a movie set is like going to the playground at recess.

I love acting. I really do. I think that's maybe the one thing that is known about me.

I have some close friends I keep in touch with. I knit. I watch a little too much TV. I ski, if the weather's right for that. If I can find a group of buddies, I go rock climbing.

I think this notion of acting and glamour is getting in everybody's way.

That's probably the biggest secret of acting: If the actor believes it themselves, they can make you believe it.

I think I understand the line between my job and the director's. I have no interest in directing. Not my movie, not your movie, nobody's movie.

The director is the captain of the ship, without question. No matter what their talent or energy level is, everyone on the crew has all eyes on the captain. If they come in going, I don't know. Maybe we'll do this. Maybe we'll do that, you've got 10 days to shoot and they don't care what you're doing.