I came out of high school, where my heroes were, like, Michael Jordan and a lot of local rugby players - and on the movie front, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
— Joel Edgerton
Pittsburgh felt like the perfect size of a city to me. There's enough to do, but it's not like living in a circus. I also really loved how sports-enthusiastic Pittsburgh people are: how proud of their sports they are.
I learned so much by being an actor, and part of my sort-of development as a writer is big thanks to the scripts I read in my acting life.
Everybody's a mix of good and bad choices that they make.
If, at the end of the day, I can look back and see pictures of all the characters I've played, and there's a smorgasbord of weirdos and interesting, odd, different characters, I'd be so happy.
Every now and then, I have a deep thought.
I'm really great at making terrible analogies.
Fighting in the ring or cage is very much different from fighting in the street. Fighting in the street is very much fueled by anger, pride, and male dominance and ego.
I blame my work for a lot of things. I thank my work for a lot of things, too, but the trouble with being so passionately involved in work is that it becomes like a lover, like your partner, because it nourishes you.
I have an issue with the commercial aspect of moviemaking: I don't see why a movie can't make a lot of money and also be good.
I don't necessarily see myself as an experienced filmmaker just because I've been in a few movies.
'Animal Kingdom' feels like a suburban Melbourne version of 'The Godfather 'to me. It's epic and Shakespearean in its story, and yet you still feel like you can reach out and touch it.
I've signed four autographs for Sam Worthington in L.A., and I haven't told any of the people that I'm not him.
I have always stuck to my guns about what I want from the work and what interests me. I've never been seduced down the evil path. The path of taking the money.
Every job leaves its residue, a bit of extra knowledge, a new skill-set.
I'm not going to allow myself to second-guess projects. I'm just going to do the ones that I fully love and believe in - that's a real privilege.
My brother and I are best friends.
I did my holy communion, and it was amazing how quickly the stories of the Bible and God and Jesus got under my skin.
I think the life of an actor is very glamorous to other people - then, realities set in.
Sometimes, what's not said is just as important to the writing as what is said. As a writer, we have our voices heard. I think that, at oftentimes, the ability to allow the dialogue to recede properly into the world of the film is also a really valid sort of way to be a writer, I think.
Actors are excused from a lot of things, and we get away with a lot... I find it equally interesting and exciting as it is disgusting and bizarre.
I wasted too much time in my twenties. I worked, but I would do theater in the evening, and during the day I would surf and do irascible things. And then, for some reason, as I got closer to my thirties, I thought, 'Okay Joel, you've wasted enough time.'
I think I'd be too scared to direct my first movie and put myself in the center.
I had a brother who was bullying me to write something because we wanted to make our own movies. So it was out of necessity in the beginning. Over time, I began to see that I could create the roles I wanted to play rather than just waiting around.
I thought I'd be married and a father by 35.
I just love good movies. And not every movie you're going to end up in is always going to turn out right, but at least walk into it with the right intention.
I love the idea of real-life experiences finding their way into fiction. I think that's really cool.
I've never seen a film get away completely unscathed like I have 'Animal Kingdom.' There's not a single bad review that I've read of it yet; all through Sundance, all it got was high praise.
There's definitely a fascination with crime stories and stories of characters acting out against authority.
I don't want at the end of my life to look back at just a bunch of fictional movies I was involved in that kept taking me away from the real world.
I can't sing or dance.
Sometimes, the smaller roles in movies can be the most interesting. If you only take the stance that you'll only play central characters in movies, you'll find yourself not being able to indulge in that morally grey terrain that makes support characters so rich and interesting.
There's a real sense of fighting and destruction in our DNA that we don't get in touch with.
I'm a pacifist.
I never imagined myself in a movie with magic.
This is the world we live in, isn't it? Tons of spin-offs; people reboot things very quickly. I was amazed how quickly they made a Wolverine movie, then, 'Let's do another origins Wolverine movie.'
It's an incredibly liberating feeling to have a skirt on. In fact, I know you can buy skirts, and you can buy work kilts and all sorts of stuff.
Some people are really good at playing the movie star - they are really good at cultivating that mystique - but I'm not really into that.
When I was young, I had a very clear point of view on things in life, on moral questions. There was a black and white viewpoint on my world. As I've gotten older, I see the grey areas appear.
One of the great joys of being able to write something you can make, if you get certain actors you want and love, you're kind of buying yourself a front row seat to watch them work.
Particularly when you're making a movie of a book, people are always waiting with their knives - you know?
I love what I do, but it occurs to me I may have handed over a large portion of my life to fiction.
I just don't want to do crap movies, man, because I just love that I can get up and talk about them and talk to journalists about stuff that I'm really proud of.
Part of me wonders what it would have been like to have had my first experience of India in a normal way, rather than through the eyes of a film.
I think, often with Australian films, if an Australian film has been given the seal of approval by an offshore festival or an offshore release, then it does mean a lot to a local audience.
I wanted to make a movie that was kind of a tribute to the way I feel when I watch a John Hughes movie.
I think the life of an actor is glamorous to other people, but then the reality sets in: you don't know where you will be next year or how long you'll be there for.
One of the things I've always enjoyed is moving around and staying fit. Physicality is such a big part of being an actor, but it's also about stillness and silence.
'The Great Gatsby' ticked so many boxes for me.
I'm single, footloose and fancy free, I have no responsibilities, no anchors. Work, friendship and self-improvement, that's me.
