ALESSANDRO NIVOLA

A lot of the time with child actors, you get the feeling they're trying to have a kind of poise or presentation that's beyond their years that might be put on, but also might be because they've spent years just hanging out with adults and they don't even have a sense of what it's like to grow up with kids their own age.

As far as my notoriety or whatever, I haven't been the star of a hit film.

People are always going to identify with what it's like living in society and have people judge you in certain ways, and how you can be strong enough to be your own person and all those good things.

I tell you, the Pokemon industry has bled me dry.

When you speak in another accent, it affects you. You can't help but be changed by it.

The research period of a film is the most exciting part of the process, and filming is sometimes a letdown because when you're dealing with biopic material, the real thing is always much more intricate than the story told in the film.

Well, I've never been in a touring rock band, it was all just high school and college, playing toga parties in frat houses.

Yeah, I've played a lot of instruments, and I played in a lot of bands growing up, and I've even had to play music in a lot of films that I've done.

There are so many factors that go into how you feel, as a performer, on any given movie, that it's really hard to identify which things are the things that help you be good, and which are the things that hinder you.

I'd grown up loving English films. I was a huge Monty Python fanatic as a kid.

I see myself as a character actor, and I've always been drawn to playing characters that are different from myself because acting is escapism for me. I've never been that comfortable playing people that are like me.

I live right under the Hollywood sign, so that every day when I drive home I'm reminded of why I'm here.

Acting can be very selfish and all-consuming.

There are so many things that have to go right for a movie to be good that it's a miracle whenever one is.

I started off as an actor thinking that I would be this Romeo, this dashing leading man. It turns out that I'm a character actor.

It's great to play a rock star. Maybe not so great to be one.

I love costumes. I love getting dressed up because it really helps my imagination make the leap to believe that I am who I say I am.

The thing with being able to do accents is that it's still completely separate from being an actor.

You have to be in movies that make money to be offered work. Basically that's the equation. There's no real way around that. That said, you don't ever make decisions solely for that reason.

Anybody who is in freelance work, especially artistically, knows that it comes with all the insecurity and the ups and downs. It's a really frightening life.

I've often gone to start a film only to find the producers surprised to discover that I'm American.

I guess I've always wanted to push the boundaries as an actor.

I've never felt that I've had some great fashion sense of my own - I tend to wear what my wife tells me to wear.

I don't separate Robert DeNiro's comedy from the serious stuff. The one thing I realize working with him in all of his work, is that he doesn't do anything unless something happens to him in scenes - unless something happens to make him react. He never came in with a set idea of how he was going to do it, he never came in with guns blazing. He would just show up and wait to see what happened.

I'm a restless person. I get bored very quickly, particularly with myself. I've used acting as an escape and a way to channel my nervous energy. So I've always looked to find a role that's as different from the one before it. I need change and variety or start to feel depressed.