I knew you had to go in and audition and maybe they'd hire you, and that's where you start. I had a good understanding about press: that it's the actor's responsibility to publicize his or her films.
When I auditioned for '21 Jump Street,' it was a last minute thing. I had one of the worst flus that I've ever experienced in my life, and I was forced to go to the audition, the screen test.
I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don't be afraid to do what your instincts tell you. You may not get the part, but people will take notice.
I didn't have a problem with rejection, because when you go into an audition, you're rejected already. There are hundreds of other actors. You're behind the eight ball when you go in there.
I can go to my premiere at the Chinese Theatre, and everyone will know me, and everyone will cater to me. And then I'll go to an audition and get rejected left, right and centre. They don't watch my videos, and they don't really know who I am. It is like starting from scratch when it comes to traditional Hollywood.
A few years back I was asked if I would go and meet a director and his various acolytes, and it occurred to me halfway through the meeting that what I was doing was auditioning. And I thought, 'Well, hang on buddy. I've done half a century of this.'
Well, I'll keep on auditioning and one day maybe I'll go to LA and try out for films there.
The real trick to auditioning is just letting go of trying to please them. Make it your own. That took me a long time to learn.
I had to stop going to auditions thinking, 'Oh, I hope they like me.' I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem.
I'm not actively seeking stardom. I just go to auditions, and I knock on wood.
When you're touring, you only see the auditorium and the hotel room. You can't go out because you get mobbed. You're tired, edgy and under pressure. The fun had gone out of it, so we decided to walk away from it all.
I was born in St. Augustine, Florida. I lived there till I was about 13, and then my family moved to Connecticut. I finished school there, and then I went to college in Philadelphia and came to New York in '87. I wasn't finished with school - I left school to go on the road.
People used to grow up in small communities where folk wisdom was passed down. But we don't live there anymore. We can't go next door to your aunt and ask her for the answers.
I was so afraid to go out west to my aunt's ranch. But the only choice my mother gave me was to go for two weeks or all summer. I wound up staying all summer. And that's where I learned about cattle. I could relate to their behavior, their fears.
I've been really fortunate to go, and it's exciting. You're going to the White House. I remember first walking into the room to meet President Obama and the aura... It's insane.
Like every Aussie actor, I'd rather be working here; it's just we've all been forced to go to the States. Business-wise, as an actor, it's more lucrative, and there's also a lot more of it there.
Australia has always encouraged the little bloke to have a go, the Aussie battler to get up.
Sometimes when Australians go overseas, it's as though the 'Aussie' is refined out of them. I don't know why. It's never happened to me, because I'm really proud of it. I'm not embarrassed about where I'm from or who I am any more. I know who I am. I don't fit in everywhere, but I know where I do fit in.
We are always going to be influenced by America... I watched the word 'bum' go out and 'butt' come in. And part of me says, oh that's a shame, but Aussie boys are still Aussie boys.
The difficulty with poetry is that it doesn't have the life that Shakespeare or Jane Austen have beyond the page. You can't make a costume drama out of it. There's no place for it to go except trapped inside its little book.
