So how long have you been doing this today? (it was around 4pm or so)

I started at 8 this morning.

Well that is longer than all of us.

Well, we are just warming up now.

So how has it been thus far?

It hasn’t been that bad so far, but the radio stuff was kind of interesting, they had this tag along or something, like they won something on the show, so they got to come along and ask a question. One of the questions that was really great was, “can I touch your hair?,” which I have never had asked before.

So what is your next film?

I have Rumor has it with Jennifer Aniston, and All the Kings Men with Sean Penn and Jude Law, and that is going to be great. Also, I am starting rehearsals on Zodiac and David Fincher is directing that.

My partner, Mr. Beaks, wants to know the status of Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret?

He starts shooting September 10^th.

He will be very happy.

Has he read that?

Yeah, he used to write for Ain’t it Cool News and he wrote a big piece on the script, he loved it.

It’s amazing. It is an amazing script.

Yeah, this was the only question of the day that I had to ask.

Tell him it is coming down the pike, with Anna Paquin playing Margaret.

The director was telling us that you played tricks on the set, can you tell us about that?

I like to keep things loose and fun, but I really can’t remember anything that I did.

What about when you would be on the set and you would leap out a window and Reese would freak out because she would forget you were on the set.

Yeah, we were fifteen feet off the ground, and I jumped out the window after a take. I said “whatever!” and jumped out onto this little catwalk that was there. I just did goofy stupid shit that just made Mark Waters mad at me. Also, when you get Donal Logue and I on a set together, you are not going to get your day’s work. We play around a lot, and Mark just tried to keep it together, but it is hard for him.

So how come you didn’t play ping pong like everyone else?

I suck. I wasn’t even in the tournament, actually I didn’t even play, it was too embarrassing. I was actually nursing pneumonia at that time, I actually got it while shooting the movie, so I had, like, 104 degree fever during the ping pong tournament, so I was kind of out of it. I actually didn’t know I had pneumonia, I just thought I was really sick.

Can you talk about how you first met Kenneth Lonergan, how that came about, as he kind of gave you your first really big role.

Well we were here in Los Angeles and I was still bartending, still kicking around here, and there was a one-act play festival that Kenny had a play in and the casting director called me in to do a reading of it but it had already been cast with some big television star at the time. I can’t remember who it was now, so I was like “fuck no! no way man, no!” (this was said in a kidding tone). They had actually cast already so I hung up. Then I thought, “don’t be a dick, who knows, you might meet somebody.” So I went and did the reading and Kenny was there, and they were looking for girls to cast, and I loved this part, and that was part of the reason I was so angry because I thought I was perfect for this. After the reading Kenny was like, “what about that guy, can’t we cast him? He’s really good” so there was a problem with the scheduling and it ended up going my way. Kenny and I ended up becoming good friends, and the play was kind of a hit in Los Angeles, which meant that around twenty people saw it. We then developed this working relationship, I ended up going out to New York to direct this one act play of his. That was a scene from You Can Count on Me, with Terry and his girlfriend when he is about to leave to get the money to get the abortion for her, and I was like “god damn that is a great part, I wish I could play that part.” Eventually he started auditioning people for This is Our Youth and we were off after that. Then came You Can Count on Me, and now I am going to do a small part in Margaret for him. We have been friends and working comrades since then pretty much. If I had said no that day, I still might be bartending. That was one of those moments that I am glad I wasn’t such an asshole. Who knows actually how many people’s lives just passed them by in a moment like that?

Reese was telling us that she has her kids and you have your kids, and they would always come to the set. How does that change your performance, or does it not alter it at all?

I guess it does, you are showing off for them. Actually my kid is four so he really doesn’t give a shit. All he knows is I walk off set, and he wants to walk into the scene with me. He doesn’t understand, he was three when we were filming this movie. I think great acting has something childish in it, so when my kid shows up you sort of bring that into the scene. It is nice having him around because he is fun and they are not too serious about it. I actually love acting with kids because they are great acting partners, they are totally present, even when they are acting, they are still available and you can crack them up or you something weird will happen and they will go with it. You can throw them little curve balls and they will go with it. So I like having kid energy around, it is good for the movie, even if you are doing dramatic stuff.

So if he turned to you at eighteen and said he wanted to be an actor, would you say you are grounded for life or…

I’d say if you can live without it, do it, but if you can’t live without it, than great. I’d hope that he would get into an acting class and take it seriously, but when he is eighteen, he is not mine anymore so… he is on his own. (laughs) I hope that if he wants to do it, I’d be able to help him somewhat. I would show him the serious part of it, not the parties or the premieres. What is important about it.

What were the most fun and challenging things about doing this particular project?

The big physical comedy pieces I had never done before. It was fun, I’d actually be up in the middle of the night, in front of my mirror in the hotel room, in my underwear trying to work out a bit that I had just dreamt about. I was actually worried about certain scenes, but once we started doing it, it was really fun and I could improvise a little bit and change it and sort of let things happen. I had never done stuff like that before, so it was fun. I love the scene when I am trying to save the guy’s life, I think that was funny stuff.

Was that written, or was any of that improvised?

Some of that was, but most was written that way. We improvised a little bit here and there, a little line change here or there, some of that repeating stuff was improvised. The stuff with the kids was improvised; we were actually making that up on the spot. For the most part we did some rehearsals, but we worked on the script a lot. We were always working on the script, so by the time we were ready to go, the script had been made into our own, we didn’t feel the need to change it too much, it was working nicely for us. We had kind of smoothed out the rough spots for us in rehearsal, and Mark is great at that, he is really collaborative, he knows exactly what he wants. He is a very strong director, but at the same time he is confident enough, and has been around long enough, to be able to have a real collaboration with his actors.

So what kind of film would you like to make that you haven’t made yet? That dream project.

I want to do a western. No one does westerns anymore.

So if they offered you a part on HBO’s Deadwood…

I would love to do that, I actually asked about that. I would love to go on Deadwood. That is a great show, the writing is great on that show.

Is it the clothes, the horses, what is it?

It’s the hair. (laughter in the room) I wouldn’t have to cut my hair. Yeah it’s the horses, and the open west and I don’t know, I just love the genre and they don’t do it anymore. I would love to be out on the range, on horses, living that life for three months, that would be fun. Ang Lee just did the gay western, with the two gay cowboys, which is really good.

Have you seen it?

No, I mean that script is really good. But that is totally different than what I want to do. I want an old-fashioned cowboy movie.

Did you want to be a cowboy when you were a kid?

For a little while, I wasn’t obsessed with it. You know what it is, the movie One Eyed Jacks. I love that movie. Also, all the spaghetti westerns, it’s just fun. So I would like to do that, and what else, relationship dramas, those are my favorite pretty much.

Why?

They are usually harder. Also the characters are more drawn out, it relies a great deal on acting, so it is more challenging. Also it makes me feel the way I want to feel as a moviegoer. They deal with the kinds of things that I want to see as a moviegoer, no one else likes it, the rest of the world doesn’t like those movies, but I like to do them, and if some people come to see them, that is cool.

How do you snap yourself out of it when you have to go to those really dark places?

I don’t. I just take that shit with me (laughter in room). I go home and my little kid, my babies are there, my wife is there, they snap me out of it. It is hard to stay in those places. I actually have gotten better at it, when I was a young actor I would just suffer immensely for my craft. Mostly it was bullshit, really (laughter), it just made me feel like I was doing something. Now it is just easier, I do know the difference between me and it. It changes, I can’t look at crime scene photos, or hear these stories from victims and not have that affect me. You are an animal if that doesn’t affect you in some way. But that’s life, you just absorb it and make it part of your personality. Anyone who has any job, you come across things that affect you. It is kind of like that, but I’ve been able to not go crazy.