Guy Pearce Quotations

The thrill of coming home has never changed.

I don't believe in God, but the thing I do believe in is that we're all connected.

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.

You never say never, but I don't think I'd want to do a long-running series.

You would think that with ten super-famous people in one movie, it's gonna be ten times more popular or viewed, but on some level, they can cancel each other out.

If I'm exhausted, physically and particularly emotionally, I can't tell what's good and I can't tell what's bad and I'm useless.

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

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 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 don't feel I'm making a conscious effort to go more commercial.

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

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 am geared towards communicating on a female level.

I wish I had the ability to crack wise, generally. You know, without getting punched. There's no way I could do it while getting beaten up. Definitely.

I'm interested in the psychological exploration of human nature, and it just happens to come in the form of film-making.

Comic-strip stuff isn't really my cup of tea, really.

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.

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

I'm constantly trying to be as original as I can.

Well, I never wear shoes at home. Never.

I always think the really unfortunate thing about the Australian film industry is its lack of momentum. And I don't mean this in a derogatory way. I'm always wanting it to pick up momentum, and I'm wondering if that's even possible.

The movie industry is very competitive, and if you're like me and you suffer from your own insecurities about whether or not you're any good, that can be troubling.

The thing I've come to learn is that what's great about small independent films is the intimacy and the communication that occurs when you're making them.

When I go to a movie, I'm always thrilled if I've seen an actor do something and I didn't realize until the end of the movie that that was that person. I love that.

On stage, you've got dialogue you've learned. You've got a paying audience. It couldn't be better, you know?

Men often still expect women to be under their thumb.

I don't understand the actor who plays the same role from movie to movie. Maybe it's because I worked on long-running television when I was in my teens, and so the idea of playing the same role just bores me intensely. I'd rather not do it at all.

The reality is that we have all these awards and all these festivals that give out awards, so you sort of go, 'okay, well, people liked the film, and I think it's a good film, and it's up for an award - well, I guess it should win the award then.'

Where do you even draw the line between genres?

When you're promoting a film it's really interesting trying to gauge what people think about it.

Working on films where the money's more important than the creativity, I just get a bit freaked out by that. I just don't feel comfortable.

They actually came to me over a year ago, and I was having an ever-so-mild nervous breakdown at that point, and felt I needed to just stop. So I went, "I can't look at anything right now, I need to stop." I wasn't really having a nervous breakdown, I'd just done too much stuff back to back. And so a whole lot of time went by, and they called and said, "Are you ready now to take a look at this script?" So I did and then met with him in the UK.

Even though we all speak English here in America, you all speak a very different language. So it's really enjoyable for me to work at home. It's more cathartic, I suppose. To work in America or other places is more about curiosity, because I'm dealing with cultures and sensibilities that I don't really know.

Ah, we tend to do a lot of that stuff in Australia. We don't really have the money to get anyone else to do it. "We can't afford a stuntman today, so you'll be jumping onto the train." "Right, okay.

I've always been resistant to parties and schmoozing.

I have real dilemmas at times in trying to understand what I really think about the things that are in films and how people respond to them. I flip back and forth from going, "It's a slice of life. This happens in life. A film is an artistic venture. It's expressing life, so why not?

I haven't done too many big American movies, really, have I? Well, I've a couple, I suppose. I certainly haven't done as many as I could have done.

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.

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?

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.

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.

It's funny, though, with films, because you can incorporate a variety of elements, and sometimes that can work for you and sometimes I think it can work against you.

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'm never there enough to really keep up with what's going on in the Australian film industry. I just try and be part of it as much as I can.

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.

I really enjoy a variety of different work, and what I've just done may sometimes determine what I choose to do next.

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.

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

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."

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.

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 have a real love of sound and the shape of the sound. 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.

Memory isn't the facts, it's just a record you keep to yourself. With the facts, memory is useless.

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've been asked to do action-oriented movies in the past and they just haven't been right for me.

The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?

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.

I don't have many friends.

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

A lot of action characters are a little bit too serious as well. They take themselves a bit too seriously, which I don't find particularly interesting, whereas I like the fact that there was at least some humor in this because really it's a piece of entertainment.

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

Having a partner who has nothing to do with Hollywood helps keep things in perspective.

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.

A movie that gets a PG-13 rating can show someone running down a street killing 27 people. And there are no repercussions.

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.

Growing up, I was a kid pretending to be an adult.

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.

Working on a studio picture, I can't help but be aware of all the political stuff that's going on. I have to work to be able to survive, in a sense.

I went through a period where I just wanted to punch everybody. Since then, I've had a lot of therapy and I've figured a lot of things out.

I think a lot of actors take on fun roles and then they're lazy or flippant with them. I just can't do that.

I suffer from overheating quite easily.

I never really enjoyed the fame stuff.

Most of the time when I'm in Australia I'm not really working, it seems. I'm just at home, getting on with renovating my house or writing music or whatever. So I get back to doing all the stuff that I naturally do. Whereas if I'm away working, that's all there is to do, is to concentrate on the work.

I don't enjoy movies in 3D. I find I can't engage with the story as well.

There's something about the American sensibility that kind of hails people in the public eye. You have a star system. You have that kind of thing where you say, "Good on you for doing that."

Australia's not so bad with me, really, people are pretty cool with me at home, but in England it feels a little bit scary.

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.

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.

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.

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 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'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 it's a great role or a great film, then you're happy to be a part of 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.

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

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.

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.

You do feel kind of nervous about any film you take on.

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.

I don't understand the actor that chooses to play the same role in everything all the time.

When I read something, I want to be surprised. So I read something and go, "Wow, I never, ever would have thought of playing this kind of role. This is exciting me, let's go do this."

I reckon it's more of an external perspective that on some level you really can control and dictate how your career's going to go.

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?

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 do have aspirations when it comes to directing, I suppose, but in a sort of a vague way. It would probably come about if I found a project that I really felt passionate about.

You never really know what the director has got in his mind as far as the scene visually and art direction wise.

Even though I've done a lot it also feels like I haven't done a lot. I've sort of popped in for supporting roles in things, and that's been really delightful.