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Quotes
I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played - they're all
really far from who I am.
I have a
fear of being boring.
I only
sound intelligent when there's a good script writer around.
I think
trying too hard to be sexy is the worst thing in the world a woman can
do.
I'm
English. Our dentistry is not world famous. But I made sure I got
moldings of my old teeth beforehand because I miss them.
If everyone
really knew what a jerk I am in real life, I wouldn't be so adored in
the slightest.
My method
can be nothing, or the most intense, bizarre preparations you've ever
seen.
What I love
about my wife is that she's a really strong-minded, stubborn, fiery
woman. I find that sexier than anything else.
An actor should never be
larger than the film he's in.
It was horrific. I was almost
crying in interviews and running away during press conferences,
pretending I was going to the bathroom and just disappearing.
I enjoyed making the film, but
I was shocked when I received all the attention when I got home to
Bournemouth. Girls were all over me, boys wanted to fight me, and I was
being asked to open local fetes when all I wanted to do was ride my BMX
bike in the woods. I told my parents I wasn't interested in doing
anything again because the attention ruined it.
I don't want to know about the
lives of other actors and I don't want people to know too much about me.
If we don't know about the private lives of other actors, that leaves us
as clean slates when it comes to playing characters. That's the point,
they can create these other characters and I can believe them. I think
if you're a good enough actor, that's the way to longevity in the film
business. Keep everybody guessing.
I started my career without
fans.
I had a stupid kind of feeling
of invincibility, like, 'I can do it, I can manage it.' I really did
feel like I hit this point of enlightenment.
I always like that. Whenever
there's a project where everyone's going, 'Oooooh, it's a bit dodgy,' I
always like it. If you actually look at it, there tends not to be
anything risky at all. Why did I start acting in the first place? I
didn't do it to be mediocre or to please everybody all the time.
I'd love to remain a secret
and still work, but I also want people to see the movies I'm in and get
a higher profile because of that. I like to think that as long as you
continue choosing diverse roles, you can avoid becoming predictable.
It's the actors who are
prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come
to mean something to the audience.
The character is so vain and
obsessed with his looks. While the psychology of the character was
something that I could perform, you can't fake the physicality. Being
English, I tend to enjoy going down to the pub far more than going to
the gym, so it was very unnatural for me. I just had to convince myself
that I loved it, which was the most difficult thing about playing this
part. Working out is incredibly boring. I swear its true that the bigger
your muscles get, the fewer brain cells you have. I found I had to stop
thinking when I was in the gym because if I thought about it, I'd
realize how ridiculous it was that I was pumping iron when I could've
been out having a drink and a cigarette and enjoying some lunch. I did
three hours a day for six weeks with a personal trainer and some time
before that. I ate an awful lot during training and then almost nothing
during filming. - On his transformation into Patrick Bateman for
American Psycho
The only thing that I'm
obsessed with is sleeping and, actually, it is more than an obsession,
it is a pleasure. I love sleeping so much that I could do it 12 hours a
day if I didn't have to turn on the alarm clock...and still,
sometimes...
Our Batman is centered on the
early days. It's an explanation. It's certainly not Batman No. 5. It's a
reinvention. We want you to forget there has ever been a Batman before
this one.
I've never felt like the
Batman character in the films was given as much time as any of the
villains. The villains were always the most interesting characters, too.
Batman has always been this very bizarre, almost blind character running
through the middle of the story. Our film is different.
I contacted them. I heard they
were doing some low-budget Batman not aimed at kids and I was
tantalized. I had appreciated the Batman movies, but I wasn't really a
fan and I didn't know the TV series. But I read some of the graphic
novels, and they were very dark and very interesting.
I spent about three weeks in
Chicago last July doing night shoots. It's a great city, but the
humidity was tough under the Batsuit. Uh, it got a little bad. It's hot
enough in the Batsuit, let alone in the Chicago heat.
I needed money because I had
just bought a house, but I just kept saying, `I really can't do another
movie that I know is not going to turn out the way I want it to, and
that I have to make a lot of concessions in my head for.'
For me, there's a bigger risk
trying Batman. Ultimately, the big point was that Chris Nolan [Memento],
who you would not expect to be doing that kind of movie, was going to
direct it, which is exactly what I was looking for, because you want to
do something totally different from the other Batman movies. I always
thought there could be a really good movie made about Batman and when I
heard that Chris was doing it I thought, `Well, he's not a director that
you would expect, therefore you're going to get the unexpected from
him.' I think there's a great potential for going very dark with it,
it's a fascinating character, very complex psychologically, which I've
never seen done. You know, you have the two extremes, which are both
very good. You can either go the very camp Adam West TV series thing,
which was great in its own way, or you can go more the way of the
graphic Dark Knight novels which delve somewhat deeper.
I had spent weeks staring at
the wall in my house out of depression because of things that had gone
wrong and the choices I had made. When I read The Machinist, I just
went, `Wow! This is perfect.' I was having dreams about the character
and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I felt like this one was going to
save my arse, and pull me out of the depressed state I had got into.
I did other things, but my
heart was never in it. A lot of actors say that theater's the thing for
them. And that's great, and I'm not one to speak with any authority
about it because of not having done it properly. For me, movies are what
I love.
At first, I was somewhat
hesitant to do the role. I mean, after all, Batman is an icon. But I
remember, as clear as day, being at the grocery store the day the movie
opened, and this little boy saw me. He couldn't have been more than five
years old. He just walked right up to me and hugged me. He hugged me,
and I was so moved by it that I hugged him back. Then he looked up at me
and said "You're my hero." And in that moment, I knew that not
only as an actor that I had done my job, but that I had made the right
decision to play Batman. And I've never looked back on my the decision
to play Batman since.- On his decision to play Batman
You couldn't pull it off
unless you became a beast inside that suit. -on playing Batman
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