I think people are really picky about English accents. When a Brit comes over here and kind of does an OK American accent, everyone's like, 'You were great! Fantastic!' But in England, even if you were doing a pretty good accent, they're like, 'But where are you from?' 'London.' 'What part of London?' Accents are really precious over there.
I left school my senior year to do a play at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. Then while I was doing a play, I auditioned for Juilliard. I got in over the summer, and they told me, 'You have to graduate high school to come here. You don't need the SATs, but you do need to graduate high school.' I finished over the summer through correspondence.
' Daisies' is about a guy touching dead people and bringing them back to life. It's kind of morbid, you know. But there's a love to it. There's a kind-heartedness to it that I think makes it - I don't know; it's a good thing to put out there in the world, so I'm glad people responded.
When you play the king of elves and alien warlords, little me is very uninteresting. But, at the same time, actors feel this obligation to be transparent, and I truly don't understand the point.
I grew up in the Middle East. My folks have a very thick, kind of Oklahoma accent; that's where I was born. But we moved to the Middle East right after I was born, so I guess we were surrounded by English people and French people.
Not even my excellent training at Juilliard prepared me for my first movie role, where I played a transsexual who falls in love with a military guy in 'Soldier's Girl.'
I think Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens have very carefully plotted 'The Hobbit' out so that it does feel like the starting point for 'The Lord of the Rings.'
Peter Jackson has the sort of imagination that no one else has.
When I was a kid, I played 'Super Mario Bros' and 'Megaman 2' and '3' for hours and hours, trying to convince my mother they were good for me because they helped my hand-eye coordination. They influenced a whole generation of people to make computers what they are now, through problem-solving and so on.
What I enjoy most about 'The Lord of the Rings' is that extended cut. To be able to sit there on a Sunday afternoon and watch 'The Lord of the Rings' from beginning to end is pretty fun.
It's totally fun to play troublemakers - totally.
