[on undertaking the role of Dr. Emmett Code in The River (2012)] I've played a lot of people who have hidden agendas or have reached bottom, who are not particularly savoury. This is a guy who believes deeply in his love for his wife, his son, and is just happy to wake up in the morning.

[on his digitally-coded performance in Super 8 (2011)]: It's not your typical acting exercise at all, because you're really the only person in this room with all the cameras in it. It was a very weird thing to offer up all this big emotion while the rest of the people in the room are picking away at the craft services table.

[on performing in the horror movie Cell 213 (2011)]: I was only on the set for about 10 days but I was trying for some edgier stuff, some different decisions. I asked the director what this guy was about, what he does, and he said 'He smells people'. So there were scenes where I really did a lot of sniffing. I spent a lot of time breathing people in and flaring my nostrils.