I like to think of myself as a fairly educated human being, but I'm a very uneducated actor when it comes to movies, directors, producers, actors for that matter.
When I was younger, I used to write to directors when I was unsure I could play a role. I'd say: 'You've made a terrible mistake.'
I am surrounded by exceptional women on Accenture's board of directors as well as my own leadership team.
My agent in Sweden used to send off interview tapes but I decided to take it upon myself and come to London to visit casting directors which is when things first started taking off for me. I love Sweden but the industry out here is quite small so when I was given the chance to go internationally I took it.
I am tired of kissing on screen. I have to do it because it is synonymous with me. Also, the producers and directors want to add that element. I don't give it too much importance.
There's some freedom that you get with indie films that you don't get with the big-budget ones. There's just a different style. I hope I can switch back and forth for the rest of my career, but I've kind of grown up on indies, and there's nothing better than working with these directors so closely and and being such a huge part of the process.
Dan Curry is the funniest guy in the world. I can sit in a room with him for hours, and he's just cracking me up constantly. And Kitao is the next Terry Gilliam. A lot of comedy directors are just comedic writers, but they don't have any sense of aesthetic or visual vocabulary.
Ulrik Ottinger was the most real and experimental of all the German New Wave directors. She was probably the most out-there, too. She's a fascinating artist in that world.
I've been lucky enough to work with some of the best TV directors there are, and I've learned from how they had to handle when things don't go quite according to plan.
People who work with me think I should cut my hair. They say casting directors are less likely to hire me with long hair - that they don't have imaginations and can't picture me looking normal. People literally have conference calls about my head when I'm not around. I mean, obviously I would cut my hair for an amazing part.
As far as directors, I'm a big fan of any kind of Billy Wilder stuff. Anything he does.
I am a fan of the Coen brothers. I'm not a fanatic. I'm a big admirer. They create unique worlds, and there is a real atmosphere to their films. Not everyone can get that. That's a massive part of their appeal: you can recognise them. Like all the great directors or artists, you know it when you see it.
I worked for a lot of directors.
I have the highest respect for stars and auteur directors. But I don't want to work with people who only invite me to the preview. We want to be in the collaborative movie business, not the financing one.
In general, we like to shoot Breaking Bad like a modern day Western, and Sergio Leone is one of my all-time favorite directors.
Nowadays, there are seven music directors in one film. I had never heard of such a thing before. If one of our old music directors was told to share a score with others, he would have left the assignment.
A board of directors that cannot produce reliable audited financial statements for almost seven years simply should not remain in office.
I want make more records with my sister. I want to go on the road. I want to tour around the world. I want to continue to make great films and work with incredible directors that I respect and look up to.
You can't do anything to a film post its release. I concentrate on working hard, giving the required inputs for the roles, having discussions with my directors and co-stars. It isn't possible to predict the fate of any film. I don't take failures to heart and successes to my head. These are part and parcel of this career.
The quality of television is becoming so good from an actor standpoint, where you get to do these amazing scenes with amazing directors and cinematography.
Really, what I'm doing is an attempt to continue the best work of the people I adore: Francis Coppola and Scorsese and Robert Altman and Stanley Kubrick and those amazing directors whose work I grew up with and loved.
As actors, we don't shy away from saying, 'I wanted to be an actor because I wanted to meet girls.' Directors cannot say the same thing.
Scripts and directors make great actors, not the other way around.
For female directors, there's a whole other set of things we have to think about, particularly when we are casting men, because there are some actors who have never been directed by a woman. Crew members, too.
A lot of directors in television have come up through the technical ranks. They have all the technical skills in the world. They're not all that familiar with actors.
I normally don't have that much confidence. I usually am trying to talk to directors out of giving me a job.
I love being on sets with very seasoned directors as well as very new directors. Every time is a discovery process. You learn something new every time.
I tell people all the time that producers, writers, and directors really don't know what they want until it walks into the room - you have to show them what they want. Everyone is rooting for you when you walk into the room. Everyone wants you to be good because it means their day is over!
As an actor, I have casting issues. I'm a minority. I don't have trouble making a living, but as far as being on the food chain of the pecking order of actors, I'm not at the top of it. With the jobs that I do, there are always control issues with directors and producers.
For some reason, it seems like pop writers, it's like they just get worse or something over time. And then you're really jealous of movie directors whose careers seem to grow and they'll be 70 years old and still doing these incredible jobs. I'm going to reverse that, I hope.
Good directors don't answer questions with their work. They generate debate and create discussion.
I have an image of Shanghai, which is quite different from other directors, I think. The story of Shanghai should happen in back alleys.
I'm a huge Nagisa Oshima fan. He was one of the most radical Japanese directors to come up in the '60s.
People think that the directors direct actors. No. Really, what the director's doing is directing the audience's eye through the film.
Some directors are interested in acting, and others are only interested in cranes and moving the camera.
That's a frustration sometimes, that certain directors that I'd like to work with, they just aren't doing stories that I'm sort of castable in. Not always, but sometimes I have that frustration.