There really are three types of 'religious' movies: the ones that make fun of it the ones that vilify it and the ones that literally preach to the converted.

I took acting classes in college and once I graduated I decided to give acting a shot when I couldn't really think of anything else to do. It took me a couple of years to get an agent and my first big break was The Fanelli Boys which was a sitcom on NBC. Then I did a few television movies.

I was a very interested arts student I was always into that part of school and when I got into high school I went into architectural drafting. It gave me an understanding of how to build things and it's really helped me put things in perspective. With my music and my movies to me it's all art.

Hollywood has the idea that movies have to be dumb. But especially movies for or about teenagers have to be really dumb!

The thing about the UK is we don't really make that many great movies.

I grew up when I was 15 when I had my first opportunity in movies. I watched every great movie for a year and a half and since then I've asked myself how I can emulate such artistry. That's really my motivation. I want to do something as good as my heroes have done.

I've done movies with a sword before. But I haven't really been given the full responsibility of something like a Ridley Scott film.

I've never really broken this down before but in movies you almost have no connection to fans. And if you do TV you're kind of connected but they know you as the TV name not your real name. If you do radio there's more of a bond there. And then if you do a podcast it's like you're literally inside of your fans.

Critics can be harsh and I think it's going to take me a long time to make people see what I have inside of me and that I really put my guts into movies and that I'm not superficial and that I'm not just a pretty face.

I've been involved with violent movies and then I've also said at a certain point 'I can't take it anymore. Please cut it.' You know you've got to respect the filmmaker and it's a really tough issue.

There are some movies that I would like to forget for the rest of my life - really! But even those movies that I'd like to forget teach me things.

I remember looking through magazines or watching movies even just a couple of years ago and being like 'I really want to be part of that ' but not realizing what that was.

I think romance is a tool comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer move people make you laugh perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach.

There are movies that require fantasy and slightly more fantastical acting. Lines that are good for certain movies in real life circumstances would be absolutely unbelievable things to really say and you would look at these people like they're freaks for conversing that way. But somehow for certain styles of movies it works and it seems fine.

I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can't really move from it: it's on buses in stores it's everywhere. One of my kids has read the books the other two are too small but they like the movies.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

Woody Allen is really the ultimate. I love that he believed in himself enough to do what he did. And I have that same feeling - that there's nobody that looks like me in movies nobody would cast me as a romantic lead but I want to do it and I feel confident that I can.

People talk about mumblecore but I prefer bumblecore hyper-realistic bee movies about how bees really are.

You go back to those films of the '40s and '50s and hear the dialogue the way the people played off each other - the wordplay. I think we've really lost that in movies.

I think being self-referential is really narcissistic. Who's to say anybody's even thinking of you that much? But some of these movies that I've done people still recite lines to me even 20 years later.

I like the George Romero films which were really great social satire movies really twisted.

My movies just kind of sneak up on you. I don't have to worry too much about what everybody is going to say. Anyway I really don't pay attention to what the world says about my movies. I just care about what my buddies think.

I really like children to watch my 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.