Guy Pearce Quotes

I tend to project my father figure onto any director that I'm working with, or mother, if I'm working with a female, or it can be confused.

I grew up doing musicals. I've done so many musicals in my life, I kind of got them out of my system. But, I certainly would be open to them. Rocky Horror Show is a big favorite of mine.

The thrill of coming home has never changed.

Funny enough, if you are looking at people these days who are putting Botox in their face and getting all sorts of plastic surgery, we look at them and go, I can tell you've had Botox. I can tell you've had plastic surgery. You look really strange to me. But no one's saying anything. We're just accepting the fact that they're strange-looking.

My problem is I'm an addictive personality. I can't have one coffee. I can't eat one piece of chocolate. I can't have a little bit of drugs.

There's many more films being made in America than there are in Australia. You make four hundred and fifty films a year, we make twenty-five.

Just because there are things I don't remember, doesn't mean my actions are meaningless. The whole world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?

I'm definitely not non-chalant. I have to leave nonchalant at home when I'm working on something, otherwise I just don't feel like I'm committed, and I've gotta be fully committed.

Doing that hunt scene was really quite demanding. I actually broke a rib during that scene. And then all the scenes after that became quite challenging, just breathing and laughing.

I don't have many friends. Most of them are gay and I get on much better with women.

I feel I do my best work when it's all there on the page, and I feel that the character is very vivid as I read the script and I'm not having to create stuff and trying to cobble together something. If I have to do that, then I don't entirely trust what I'm doing.

I can be completely indulgent and spend as many hours and days or weeks as I like on one thing. Writing music and sitting in my studio, just pottering with ideas, it's a lot more personal and creative for me, I don't feel restricted.

The majority of people who join law enforcement are doing it for good, moral reasons, but then there are the few who get through, where you go, 'Whoa, hold on a second. What's this guy doing here?'

I think when people are repressing things, or burying things, that can manifest in all sorts of ways.

I always look at films as real stories with real people in real situations. That's why I struggle with the whole notion of calling someone the 'good guy' or the 'bad guy,' because I think we all have potential to do good things and all have the potential to do bad things.

I grew up with such an affinity to cats. I adore the way that they think and operate.

I've not often been a man of many words. I've never considered myself to be overly articulate. I do feel more comfortable acting something out than I do explaining something or whatever.

The first thing I need to get sorted out before I can then move forward, before I can feel any confidence whatsoever, is the voice.

I really enjoy doing things that are more subtle and close to home - and literally close to home.

When you've had a relationship with anybody in your life and you both know what that relationship is, you don't have to do anything to prove to anybody that you've had that relationship. It just exists.

English is no problem for me because I am actually English. My whole family are English; I was brought up listening to various forms of the English accent.

You meet these people who are confident all the time. They annoy me. And I wonder if it's because I'm envious or if it's because they're shallow.

I'll have a different answer tomorrow that I do today.

I think that you can say something in one line with a look that you might need three lines on a page for normally.

Ultimately the most challenging thing, always, is to just be convincing

I just can't talk about things before I do them, because just for me... I give energy away before I've put energy into the job.

Well, English is no problem for me because I am actually English. My whole family are English; I was brought up listening to various forms of the English accent. Obviously there are more specific ones that get a little bit tricky. Same with American stuff. But because in Australia we're so inundated with American culture, television, this that and the other, everyone in Australia can do an American accent. It's just second nature.

Sometimes I'll go for something more because of the story, or more because of the director. But, generally, I have to feel like it's something that I have a real sympathy for - a person that I can completely go, "Oh, wow, oh, I'm there." Otherwise I don't feel like I will be able to pull it off at all. I know I haven't done everything very well in the past; some things have worked and some things haven't. But I need to feel like I can feel about the person, understand that person, I suppose.

I'm far more comfortable in my 40s than I ever was.

A lot of people are going to hate me for saying this, but one of my least favorite kinds of music, or the kind of music that I feel I've so got out of my system, is musicals music.

If something doesn't come out of your mouth right, you've got to acknowledge the fact that you're trying to deliver an honest performance. If it doesn't' come out of your mouth correctly, then it's not going to work.

I'll generally write out every scene that's in the film on a couple of pieces of paper, just with a little one-line. And then I can scan it a bit and go, 'This first third of the film, generally, I'm kind of calm.' Then I might do something on one piece of paper that just relates to the energy of the character.

I'm a musician, and I'm fascinated with the effects of sound, and tone, and pitch and melody and all that sort of stuff. It's the first thing I have to solidify whenever...I get into a character. The first thing I need to get sorted out before I can then move forward, before I can feel any confidence whatsoever, is the voice.

I didn't know what the path was that I wanted to be as an actor, to be honest. I've been doing a lot of theater since I was a kid, so I was just sort of taking opportunities.

Every time you say yes to a film there's a certain percentage of your yes that has to do with the director, a certain percentage to do with the story, a certain percentage with the character, the location, etc.

I used to work out in the gym a lot when I was younger. I was a competition body builder when I was 16 or something crazy like that for a short period of time. So, the gym is quite familiar and I know what I'm doing there.

I want to bring something different to every film. I get a bit tired of actors who kind of are the same character in every film that they do.

I can be fairly optimistic, but I'm probably more a realist, I think. I mean, optimism's an interesting quality, isn't it, because I'm always slightly dubious as to what's behind it?

I find it really difficult to even articulate things that I've done in the past. I express myself through the characters that I play, not through the articulation of them later.

I had to put the word out to people that I didn't cost a fortune, and I was prepared to work at home. Because that's the assumption: "Well, he lives in America now, we can't afford him, we won't bother."

I do like a variety of things so I'm always interested in finding something that I haven't done before, if possible, to whatever degree that sometimes changes, and how much is something now that I wouldn't have a year ago but sort of based on what I've done recently as well.

There's a sense of humor within the Australian culture that prevails when one is in a rather difficult situation.

I think as an actor, or any artist, you move with your moods and you express what's going on for you, and you answer to that voice within that's calling for particular things.

I do like a variety of things so I'm always interested in finding something that I haven't done before.

I've learned from the past that it's important to recharge and get time in-between jobs, and if I can't get time in-between jobs then when I know I've got some time coming up at the end of a job, really try and take advantage of that. And do very mundane things at home and putter in the garden and spend time with family and make music and, you know, play with the dogs. Just get back to being me.

If you look at the films that I've done generally, you would probably get an idea of what I'm most interested in, and if ever I do something unusual like a science fiction film or an action film or a comedy or something, then that to me feels like a step to the side to do something different.

I'm able to lead my life as well as make a film. My wife and my friends and people around me know that I do tend to distance myself a little bit during the making of a film, but I have to, it's a natural part of the process for me because you are indulging in the headspace of somebody else, you are investing in the psychology of somebody else and you are becoming somebody else, and so there isn't enough room for you and that somebody else.

It's really interesting making films and actually seeing the life that they have in the subsequent years and seeing which ones stand up over time and which ones sort of fade away.

You can have a great time on a film and the chemistry can seem great but then you look at the finished film and it just doesn't quite gel, something doesn't quite work.

Choosing work is an interesting thing. It's a balance between what's available and what you've always got in the back of your mind - that awful, strange thing that seems to have to exist in this industry, of what will give you "exposure."