In Australia, I grew up watching 'The Mickey Mouse Club,' my son grew up watching 'Sesame Street,' my grandson's growing up watching 'Dora The Explorer.' So we are sort of saturated with American culture from the day we're born, and to those of those who do have an ear for it, it's second nature.

The Oscar buzz when I was nominated was totally overwhelming. I think I can cope with anything now that I've coped with that. It was huge. It makes you realize, coming from a small country like Australia, what an enormous industry it is in America.

It's a basic tenet you learn at drama school. If you're playing someone evil, you can't make an objective moral judgment. You've got to get inside the character and empathize as much as possible.

I do a lot of American plays. I've done a lot of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Neil Simon. I was in 'Sisters Rosensweig,' 'Six Degrees of Separation,' all of that stuff. So we're very familiar with America. I did 400 performances of 'Born Yesterday.' I did 700 performances of 'They're Playing Our Song.'

When you travel and when you campaign, people tell you their problems. You see the problems and you become aware of them and you talk about them every day. And so you feel the responsibility for doing something about them.

I think politics is definitely something that I've always thought about as a career.

We never came into the business with a plan beyond the next three months. It's all been a natural thing for us to go off and travel and then maybe record an album.

In your career, to walk away champion of the Greatest Royal Rumble would be something people will take with them for a lifetime.