Rarely do you meet an American who knows his Wordsworth.

I did literature at university, so I had a real relationship with poetry, but they don't make many films about the world of a poet.

I really don't mind what people assume about me. I really think that my brain is my private thing. I don't need the approval of people. I don't need people to think I'm intelligent. And I'm not that intelligent.

Everyone's parents were famous actors at my school, pretty much! I think I went to school with Paris Hilton when I was three. That's what L.A. is, though - it's an industry town. You go to school with kids and you think, 'Well that's normal, they make movies.'

American culture is very good at interpersonal relationships and people skills, whereas we're incredibly adept at academics and straightforward 19th-century Victorian education.