In Romania, of course, gymnastics is among the most popular sports, and my parents had a dream of escaping the Ceausescu regime and giving their child a better life. So they came to the United States and put me in gymnastics.
What modern humans need help with is escaping from the despair of politics, commerce and media, escaping from the drabness and oppressiveness of worldly values and seeing through suburban mentality and normal community standards so that they can find some much-needed relief for their wilting souls.
My parents left Libya in 1979, escaping political repression, and settled in Cairo. I was nine.
When you're acting, you're escaping and hiding behind something. It's cliched to say, but there's a safety there.
All of us can agree that we want government to work as well as possible, and we should all applaud efforts to improve it. But there is no escaping the divisive and essential questions: What is the purpose of the state, and whom does it serve?
Movies, more than anything I can think of, are a great escape from reality. My reality, in particular, needs escaping.
I experienced how foreign aid for large-scale vaccination projects helps to save the life of children and thus give a real input to growth and to escaping poverty.
A James Bond movie is a stuntman's dream. I was in a helicopter firing a machine gun at Piers Brosnan escaping on a motorbike.
I think escapism is very important, certainly in my life. I love nothing more than escaping into the world of a film or a novel. To be involved in creating that for other people is a privilege.
I love escaping into character. It's a chance to try on people that you wouldn't be brave or stupid enough to be in real life.
