Everybody gets typecast in movies but you have to make wise choices. I'd say around 90 percent of movie casting is about the way you look so you have to fight that. If producers had their way I'd only be in action films but I'm interested in a more varied career than that.

Besides the fact that I make movies there's nothing interesting about my life at all unfortunately.

Movies for adults sucked in the 1980s and music for adults sucked even worse whether we're talking about Kathleen Turner flicks or Sting albums the decade's non-teen culture has no staying power at all.

Movies as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans influence broader trends.

A lot of people just go to movies that feed into their preexisting and not so noble needs and desires: They just go to action pictures and things like that.

I think it's more interesting to see people who don't feel appropriately. I relate to that because sometimes I don't feel anything at all for things I'm supposed to and other times I feel too much. It's not always like it is in the movies.

I think that's what distinguishes Schmidt really. In the movies now so much of what is appealing to an audience is the dramatic or has to do with science fiction and Schmidt is simply human. There's no melodrama there's no device It's just about a human being.

The present moment is nice but it does not last. Living in it is like waiting in a junction town for the morning limited the junction may be interesting but some day you will have to leave it and you do not know where the limited will take you.

As an actor it's more interesting to play a nerd than anything else. It's a lot more fun - you don't worry about 'what's my hair like?' in the morning or 'which is my great angle?'

Congressman Berg will repeatedly talk about Harry Reid and Barack Obama and I find it interesting because this morning when I woke up and brushed my teeth I looked in the mirror and I did not see a tall African-American skinny man. So let's make it clear that my priorities are North Dakota priorities.