We were probably the last people in the country to get a VCR and we didn't have cable. There wasn't any admiration of glamour no 'I want to look like them or have that lifestyle' because everyone in my town had the same lifestyle. So I didn't think 'Ooh a movie star's birthday!' I just thought 'What?'

My son had his eighth birthday recently and we had a chance to borrow the film and show it to all of his friends that was at his birthday party and they loved it. I was a little nervous. I said they might not even like it and say his daddy's movie is wack but they loved it.

A huge part of acting in movies is appetite. You do your best work when you've got a lot of appetite and you really want to embrace something. When you get tired you don't have that hunger.

My nominee for Best Picture of the year - maybe the best picture ever because it's essentially made up of and is an ecstatic love letter to all other movies - is Christian Marclay's endlessly enticing must-see masterpiece 'The Clock.'

Perhaps it sounds ridiculous but the best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all.

There's a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award and a lot of great movies that haven't. You just do the best you can.

My main aim has always been to do good quality films with roles that have some substance. With Power and Beauty there were loads of things that I liked about the movie which made me opt for it.

I'd like to make really important movies like American Beauty. I was really proud to be a part of that movie.

Beauty has been democratised. No longer the preserve of movie stars and models but available to all. But while the invitation to beauty is welcomed it has become not so much an option as an imperative.

Boxing is my real passion. I can go to ballet theatre movies or other sporting events... and nothing is like the fights to me. I'm excited by the visual beauty of it. A boxer can look so spectacular by doing a good job.