- (on kissing the older woman in Van Wilder (2002)) On that note, that being said, it was damn hard kissing her. You've never experienced anything until you've had a mature, darting tongue in your mouth.
- Acting has given me a way to channel my angst. I feel like an overweight, pimply faced kid a lot of the time - and finding a way to access that insecurity, and put it toward something creative is incredibly rewarding. I feel very lucky.
- [on his relationship with Alanis Morissette] Our relationship couldn't be better. There's no truth to the rumours we would temporarily broken up.
- I never took acting classes, but I knew I could do it based on the skill with which I lied to my parents on a regular basis!
- I'm not a hockey fan, which is probably why I had to leave Canada in the first place.
- (on getting into acting) I started when I was 13 years old. I did a really horrible soap opera called Fifteen for Nickelodeon that stoned college kids kept on the air for three years. And then the first movie I did was in Sri Lanka when I was 14. I spent three months there. I was there without my parents working on a movie in a country that was in the midst of a civil war. It was pretty wild.
- I did two trips in 2006. I did one through New Zealand on a motorcycle, and I tried to cross Australia on a motorcycle from one end of the continent to the other. My friend and I did not make it, unfortunately - he crashed, and we had to find a hospital.
- (on if he gets recognized while traveling) I get noticed depending on where I am. I have no problem wandering all around Spain. But the Germans - ah, the Germans - they are like "Oh! Van Wilder's a party animal!".
- (2007) I used to backpack when I was younger. I think I can actually say that I can't do the hostel thing anymore - I'm a little too spoiled.
- I have a discipline that has served me very well in my career and in my personal life... and that's gotten stronger as I've gotten older. I've always felt if I don't just have a natural knack for it, I will just out-discipline the competition if I have to -- work harder than anybody else.
- (2010, on Van Wilder (2002)) It made me the party guy. I would walk into a bar and people would start lining up the shots. You could sum up my career at that point as a free shot at a bar. I know it affected me more than I'm revealing, because I know that I went years without even saying the words "Van Wilder". Even now, when I say it, it's a bit of a big moment for me.
- (on filming Buried (2010)) I'll never, ever in my life complain on a set again after being on that set. Sixteen, seventeen days of doing that... It was such a state of emotional distress.
- [on The Nines (2007)] That was such a wake-up call for me. The movie was made on less than a million dollars. I loved the process. I loved the character I was given to play. I learned a lot about filmmaking from John August, who was directing. That was the birth of my own ambition. There were particular films after that that I went after. I had a new view.
- [on Buried (2010)] It's one of those rare movies that you experience more than you watch it. The selling point to me was that script had both a narrative challenge and a technical challenge. It's rare to find a script that has both. People like Hitchcock, that's all he looked for. Films like Rope (1948) and Lifeboat (1944) and Rear Window (1954), that was what they were all about. I had a lot of confidence in Rodrigo, though. He sent me a comprehensive, 15-page treatise on why he wanted to make the film. That hooked me. It's not the most glamorous role. You get in the box and as an actor you have to do these things that are embarrassing, frightening and raw. It was an adventure.
- [on the effect the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" would have on his wife, Scarlett Johansson] Now it's going to be, 'Sexiest man, take out the garbage'. That does sound better.
- I'm always terrified at the beginning. Then I start working and get past my fear, which is the real win for me. Just like Hal [Jordan in Green Lantern (2011)] I'm used to stepping forward in the face of whatever fears I've created for myself. The stunts on the ground I can do, but I've never been good with heights.
- When I was a little kid - maybe nine or ten - I was a complete asshole. I would run around the neighborhood on Halloween throwing firecrackers in people's mailboxes, at their houses, and things like that. We were just these little hell raisers. I'm sure I have a lot to atone for, if there is a judgment day. It's gonna be a long list for me. It goes right up until I was about 18 and then I sort of straightened out.
- For every character I play, there's ten others I've read that went to another actor because he's better qualified for the role, or for whatever reason, who knows - it's always a very mercurial process.
- As an actor, you're always kind of cognizant that you'll never work again. You always have this lizard-brain fear, always, just under the surface, that this is it. Because you see it. I've been fortunate enough to have a 23-year career so far. I've watched people come and go and vanish. I've watched really talented people never get that invaluable foothold into the industry. So you're always walking that tightrope of being very grateful that you're in this position.
- I used to say to [Blake], "I would take a bullet for you. I could never love anything as much as I love you." I would say that to my wife. And the second I looked in that baby's eyes, I knew in that exact moment that if we were ever under attack, I would use my wife as a human shield to protect that baby.
- [having lost interest in The Flash, the comic book adaptation to which his name was once attached] I have no desire to wear a red leotard for three pictures over 10 years.
- [2007, lighting what he calls "a horrible little cigarette" while grimacing with self-contempt] I had quit, but then I had to smoke in my last two movies.
- [on his "Know Thyself" tattoo that he got in 1998] It was about disappointing my parents.
- [observation, 2019] Some of the stuff I've done in the past that you would characterize as maybe-didn't-work were moments where I was stepping into the archetypal leading-man role. It's just not something I've ever been really that great at, to be totally blunt. But I have immense respect for those who are great at it. I also think that our idea of a traditional leading man, archetypal male is changing wildly day to day, over the last five years in particular. And I think that's great. I think that's evolution, to put in in Pikachu terms.
- I'm terrified that I'm genetically predisposed to only having boys. That's frightening. By the time I was 10 years old, and I'm not exaggerating, I knew how to patch drywall.
- I think every relationship is going to go through a few rough patches. Those are what make it stronger, I think.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content