Richard Jenkins

Sometimes, I can read a great script, and I don't like the part, or I don't think I'm right for it. I mean, there are times I've read really great parts and think there's so many other actors who could do this better than me. And I just say no to it.

When I was a kid, I loved horror films. I used to stay up on Saturday night to watch.

I like relaxed sets. I like to feel that I can make a mistake without feeling like I'm costing somebody money. I like a sense of freedom. I like it when people are open and are willing to let you do your work.

I like not knowing what's around the corner. It's always been that way, and maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm an actor.

I understand being alone. I understand not liking it, wishing for something else.

I love it when a director says, 'I don't know.'

But I loved making 'Eat Pray Love,' and I loved working with Julia Roberts.

A Western would be good. I'd love to do a Western.

In college, I was teetering on the edge: Do I want to be an actor? Do I not want to be an actor? And then I saw Michael Caine in 'Alfie,' and I thought, 'Wow, that's what I want to do with my life,' even if I knew I'd never reach that level of proficiency.

Losing a parent makes you realize how temporary everything is - you're looking through someone's whole life in a drawer, and they're very simply gone.

We all have movies for times in our lives when we really need something.

If I'm playing a bad guy, and I'm playing him evilly - I'm making him evil; I'm being evil because I want the audience to understand that he's bad - or if I have a line that's funny, I do it in a comedic way, that, to me, is a lie. It's dead when I watch it.