PAUL DANO

One thing you notice is, there's a lot of people with raw talent, and then there's people who take that talent and work hard.

I know I am always pumped, as an audience member, to go and see a Western.

I grew up in Manhattan, and now I live in Brooklyn.

On 'There Will Be Blood,' I was cast at the last minute. I had 3 and a half to 4 days to get ready for the first day. I just went for it, threw myself in there and gave it everything I had. That was just guts and instinct, not a lot of preparation.

As an actor, the toughest thing is being subject to circumstance. Meaning: What scripts are out there that are available?

People have asked me about playing outsiders. I don't consider myself an outsider. Maybe that's why I'm interested in that. I'm not really sure.

In 'There Will Be Blood,' my character was someone who was an actor himself almost. He had a rehearsed quality about him. He was a performance artist in a way.

I think it is important to make sure that I have my real life as well, because Hollywood can certainly seem like an alternate reality sometimes.

I know an actor who would play one type of part but could never get cast as tough. Once he got cast as tough, as a cop, he only got offered cop roles. It's a funny business in that regard. It's all about perception.

I love filming in New York. I love New York movies, too. I just like it when people can take New York and make it their own, because there are so many different New Yorks.

I think that the Western went away for a while because part of its function was that it used to be America's action film.

I go down to the dive bar around the corner when I go out. I don't go to the showbiz parties.

'Looper' was a wonderful script. Rian Johnson is the real deal and a really talented filmmaker.

Theater is hard.

I started acting pretty young, so I haven't had too many odd jobs. But I used to sell candy out of my locker in middle school.

There's a lot of people that I would love to work with. There's a lot of different kinds of parts I wanna play. As your career progresses, you hope that you get some more opportunity or some more choice.

The only constant I can find is hard work.

I don't like to spend a lot of money on haircuts: I'll sometimes grow my hair and get an acting job and get them to cut it for free. I think for a lady, though, it's okay to spend a lot on a haircut.

There are maybe 100 actors I look up to, but my first two favourite actors were Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson.

It's a lot of fun to be a part of films that you don't exactly know how they're going to turn out.

When I'm not excited, it makes acting very hard for me.

I think was overly empathetic for a while in my life.

As an actor, I always feel you basically have to be able to delude yourself.

You try to get to know your character as best as you can before you start filming - what's written and not written.

Nobody is a perfect actor.