But we had a fantastic coach, Simon Clifford, who runs a British football youth game which teaches Brazilian techniques - which is what we wanted to incorporate into the film. And some of those things we eventually got in.
I love Soundgarden, I love Rage Against the Machine, Simon & Garfunkel.
One of the things that upset me was some of the criticism leveled at Simon and Garfunkel. I always took exception to it, but actually I agree with a lot of it.
My look was even more solidified when I started singing in Greenwich Village with my sister Lucy. We wore matching dresses as the Simon Sisters.
Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.
I could have a degree in music and come on the show, and Simon could still say 'You stink'.
I was just an animal lover. Everything that the Sam Simon Foundation does is supposed to help dogs and people - that's our mission.
The way Ben Gibbard paints a picture, you feel like, 'I was there that day with him.' You really feel the way he paints pictures and speaks and talks. It's almost like talk-singing. Paul Simon does that very well as well. He's a huge influence of mine.
I felt a responsibility to Simon and to our kids to be able to live with integrity and not have some strange split psychology of 'This is who my dad is at home, and this is who he is to the public.'
My expectations for myself were never high. I had a very unusual way of writing songs and of thinking about music. I wasn't at all like Bob Dylan or Simon and Garfunkel. I was completely different - I didn't have a David Geffen at my side.
Paul Simon started piling up a lot of words, more than the bar could handle, and I stopped!
I wondered if people might not have had enough of Simon Armitage and wondered whether I hadn't had enough of Simon Armitage.
Randy said I could call him for anything, Paula said that she loved me and said how much of a star I was. Simon was like, keep up the good work and I'll have nothing to worry about.
My dad was a huge Bob Dylan fan, so we listened to his music, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and all that kind of stuff.
There are many actors I admire, but I always look at people who have done a variety of roles - people such as Simon Russell Beale or Ralph Fiennes.
Nowadays I'm more interested in what you'd call 'alternative.' Lately we've been listening to a lot of Mumford & Sons, and Jenny Owen Youngs. I'm also pretty crazy about the Kings of Convenience, a Norwegian band that's been compared to Simon and Garfunkel.
I've really enjoyed doing 'Annie Get Your Gun' and loved Neil Simon stuff like 'Chapter Two.'
I don't think that Simon and Garfunkel as a live act compares to Simon and Garfunkel as a studio act.
Alan Bennett is a starmaker; he's the Simon Cowell of the theatre world! He's a beautiful, beautiful man: completely humble and so accessible.
In my own work, I don't have favorite characters, but I have characters that I relate to the most. And I relate the most to Simon from 'The Mortal Instruments,' and also Tessa from 'The Infernal Devices.' They're more sort of bookish and shy characters.
I had actually sent an audition tape for Simon Pegg's movie 'Hot Fuzz,' which came to nothing. Four years after the film released, out of nowhere, I got a call saying the producers of 'Game of Thrones' wanted me to play Hodor after they had seen that particular tape.
Simon Bolivar, when history led him - and as Karl Marx said, men can make history, but only as far as history allows us to do so - when history took Bolivar and made him the leader of the independence process in Venezuela, he made that process revolutionary.
One of my favorite experiences in my career, certainly one of the most interesting characters I've ever played, was Simon Lee on 'The Event.' That was a show I was quite proud of and a character I really enjoyed playing. It was one of the most three-dimensional characters that was ever written for me and that I'd ever gotten to play.
I wanted the opportunity to work with Judy Davis and Simon Wincer.
'The Muppet Show' was huge. I watched it all the time as a kid, and I really loved the way they used music on that. I also remember hearing the radio in the car as a kid, like Stevie Wonder and Simon and Garfunkel.
I'm born and raised Long Island. Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Ben Gibbard - melody-driven guys... They shaped me, molded my music.
Carly Simon abandoned the stage for seven years after collapsing from nerves before a concert in Pittsburgh in 1981. When she resumed performing, she would sometimes ask members of her band to spank her before she went onstage, to distract her from her anxiety.
We want to be brothers and sisters. We want respect and equality. Simon Bolivar, our father, said a balanced world - a universe - a balanced universe in order to have peace and development.
Simon Cowell is a pretty rough guy.
I think someone like Khandi Alexander, who's now on 'Treme,' is one of the most extraordinary actresses I've seen in years. But she's dependent on someone brilliant like David Simon to realize that and to give her a forum. Tyler Perry's not interested in that kind of nuance because it doesn't sell.
I toured around the country and met all these Broadway producers who put me in all these Neil Simon plays like 'Brighton Beach Memoirs' and 'Biloxi Blues.'
One of the disadvantages of poetry over popular music is that if you write a pop song, it naturally gets into people's heads as they listen in the car. You don't have to memorize a Paul Simon song; it's just in your head, and you can sing along. With a poem, you have to will yourself to memorize it.
Since we launched the original 'Pop Idol' in England, I've remained close with Simon Fuller. Working as executive producer on 'American idol' for its first seven years not only was an inspirational journey into the heart of American pop culture, it opened my eyes to the untapped potential of the incredibly dynamic young people in this world.
For 20 years, Simon & Schuster asked me, 'Why don't you write your autobiography?'
In everyday life, I'm pretty much T-shirt and jeans guy - a soft LnA shirt, cool APC jeans, Nikes or Jordans. If I'm going to an event I like to wear a suit, sometimes a three-piece. I'm into brands like Simon Spurr - I think he makes great suits - and Dior Homme.
I'm a huge fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.