Edward Norton Quotes

I think my favorite role was playing Sarah Baker in 'Cheaper by the Dozen 1.' It was my first movie, and I worked with amazing professionals who had such strong work ethics that I immediately learned how to work in this industry.

It's great to work with people who are jobbing actors at different stages of their career, and learning from them, and getting over being star-struck by somebody like Ian McKellen because he has such a long prestigious history in the business, but then seeing how he works on the camera; you never stop learning.

I actually had the good fortune to work with Nick Hoult on 'Mad Max' in Africa, so we became really fast friends.

But in this case, he had my cell phone and my phone was ringing and I had just come back from Australia on the plane and I thought it was my mum and it was Woody Allen just checking to see if I wanted to be in his movie.

I was in Hyderabad shooting for a Telugu film with Mahesh Babu when Aamir called, saying he wanted me to play the widow Jwala in 'Mangal Pandey.'

I had such a good time working with Paul Feig on 'Spy.'

I got to work alongside Alexandra Shipp, who plays Storm in 'X-Men: Apocalypse', so that was really cool for me.

This is many, many years ago. It was shortly after "Starman" I think. I don't know how close I was to getting the part. I met with [director] Penny Marshall and that's one that I knew would be a hit. It just felt hit-ish. But it's like you go to a store and you see a jacket and you go "I love that jacket" and you try it on and it's too big or too small for you and it's the only one they have. For some reason that part just didn't fit me.

I remember Robin [Williams] walked up to me after the last take and said, "Thanks boss! We nailed it!" That will probably be one of the best moments of my life.

I've learned to do a movie and then not be in that place for a long time.

A lot of times you'll do a movie, and you'll be working with adults with families and kids and stuff. There's a level - you guys aren't going to be hanging out every second, you know?

[The Rum Diary] is a prestigious movie and it's got a great, talented cast, so they wanted to make sure they had the right person for the role, but it was a torturous process. It was painful.

I see how people boss other actors around to try to get a scene favorable to them. I absolutely just never engage in doing that. If someone's going to do it to me, I just let them have it.

I've worked with a lot great directors who have huge resumes, but I'm really trying to be active in my career in supporting the new generation of cinema. I like taking some time to try to support and be a part of that.

A Dirty Shame was a crazy movie. I don't understand that movie at all. I don't get it, but I'd work with John Waters again in a heartbeat. He's just a delight.

One of my favorite things being on movies is that when you're working, it's the best thing that's ever happened, and then in the downtime, you socialize and go to dinner.

I think around that time I met David [Gordon Green] or, well, we all met at Superbad and Judd [Apatow] said, 'I'm thinking about having him direct [ Knocked Up].' Sounded like a good idea.

When you're a director, you have great respect for directors. I am really pretty loyal to any director that I am working for and I want to help them realize whatever story and mood and tone that they're trying to realize. As an actor, you really just are a cog - you are an important cog, but you are just a piece of the machine.

[Jim Belushi] and I have a great thing going, and a really weird, offbeat story. [Living In Peril] is the type of movie that I don't even know if it would be made today. Just a very odd film. But a very fun movie.

My first day on set [Bad Santa 2] was with Billy [Bob Tornton] and it was a sex scene in a Christmas tree lot and you know in order to make it great for the audience you just have to go for it! It was our sort of our icebreaker. There is something very freeing and fun about just playing make believe and it's just over the top and hilarious so you just go for it.

Movies cost so much that studios really try to impose their personality over yours. A lot of times, you can get swallowed up in that and end up making movies that are indistinguishable from anybody else's. One of the things I've always tried to do is to inject myself as much as possible into the movie, so I feel like it's mine. But that also comes from what you choose to do and what you choose not to do. There are certain projects I could have said yes to, and I know exactly how they would have turned out: exactly the way they turned out when someone else did them.

The cool thing about making a Western is that people want to be in them. You rarely get the opportunity. With horror movies you are always trying to convince them. People in horror are always worried it's going to be this schlocky thing, and you're always trying to convince them that it's not. With Westerns, people immediately react with, "Oh, I've always wanted to do one."

When Jim Carrey signed on to star in [The Cable Guy], and then they asked me to produce it, I made a very brief plea to direct - which was rejected really as quickly as anything can be.

This is the fourth movie that I've done with this set of director-writers and I've learned to trust them at this point, because actually I started on Lego before they did.

I'll be working with Ridley's [Scott] brother, Tony, again, someone who needless to say we've had a great amount of success together. I trust him - so I won't have to think about it or I'll try not to.