Alden Ehrenreich

Paul Newman made eight of my favorite movies. He chose a certain kind of movie I really identified with.

There's a lot of directors I'd still love to work with - one of them is Spielberg, because he kind of started my career, and I've not worked with him yet.

I carry around a black leather Moleskine journal all the time. And I always write ideas down, especially when I'm on set and working with actors like Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis and learning from them.

What drew me to 'Beautiful Creatures' was the character that I get to play, Ethan. Within three pages, I knew he is so specific and interesting.

I just can't imagine having to do an accent all the time - like, in your whole career.

I listen to some really bad country.

No one remembers it; none of my friends remember me having it, but I had really bad acne for, like, years.

My mom wouldn't let me do child acting.

My mother always cultivated my imagination from the time I was very little.

My parents weren't involved in show business, but my parents would show me. We'd watch old films in the house. Little film festivals of Westerns and stuff like that when I was a kid. I knew I wanted to be those guys in those movies before I knew what being an actor was.

Every movie I've done, it's always the same criteria: finding a great story, and finding a great part to play.

When you work for the Coens, they are so fun and so organized. They treat everyone with such respect.

The biggest challenge to being an actor is, when you're not working, just being unemployed: the downtime and not having anything to do.

I made short films in school.

Acting-wise, I've had all these experiences. Yet when I look at certain people whose careers I admire, they've gotten to play so many different characters.

I had a great high-school experience. I had a lot of friends that I'm still really good friends with, but there's always times where a group can't understand what the individual is experiencing, or you're going through something at home that you can't bring to school and have a total understanding among your peers.

I think everyone in high school at one point feels like they're on the outside observing what's going on. Even if you're very popular, you have an outsider experience.

When I was 12, I decided I was only going to watch Westerns for a few months.

My parents were big film buffs.

I remember when I was 13 and telling people I wanted to be an actor, and being met with, 'Have fun waiting tables,' so I figured maybe that's not such a great idea after all.

One thing that you kind of know about the 'Star Wars' universe, but that you learn in a much more impactful way as you get into it, is that living in that universe is hard.

It's just cool to have lunch with Harrison Ford.

One of the beautiful things about being a part of 'Star Wars' is that it's one of those few things that are community-building in that way. Maybe that way of putting it is a little self-important. But it is something we all have a connection to, something everybody knows about. There aren't that many of those things.

I was still auditioning when I was in college, but I wasn't really giving it the old college try. I was giving college the old college try.

I had an iPhone, and then I'd forget my iPhone at home, and I'd be like, 'God, I feel so good. I'm having such a good day.' And then I'd realize, 'Oh - it's because I'm not checking my email nineteen thousand times.'

I don't have social media, and I'm not, I guess, that adept at being on the Internet.

I tend to be a bit of a hermit. A bit monkish. I like to tune out the context.

Like, you think, 'Oh, it's 'Star Wars,' everybody has a spaceship' - but no, actually, in the 'Star Wars' universe, having a ship is like having a yacht.

With 'Running Scared,' I originally wanted to do a piece that was going to be about a couple, and the whole thing would be based on wall posts on Facebook. So the idea started there.

I don't find it very helpful to know who else is going up for stuff, generally.

Whenever you hear somebody else is auditioning for something, you sort of assume they're going to get it. You should try to just ignore it.

I find it remarkable. It's surreal for me that I've gotten to work with so many people who are not only great filmmakers but whose films have had such a direct effect on me.

This movie 'On the Road' with Kristen Stewart - they were trying to make that movie for 30 years. She says she wants to do it, and they can finally make it. You have so much at your disposal if you're in a successful commercial film.

It's appealing to me to get to be in a commercial film without feeling like I sold out.

When you watch a lot of movies as a kid, the stories do shape a little bit how you view the world.

Something that is appealing to me about old Hollywood is job security.

I really don't know what it's like in 'Twilight,' but I know in the young-adult genre, there are these cold, aloof guys. If you start thinking that's the ideal guy when you're 13, by the time you're 25, you're going to have had some seriously bad relationships.

Each film and each character is a completely new set of challenges. It doesn't feel like you can rest on something you may have done well in the past.

I think now I'm more realistic, but I'm still very much an idealist.

I had a meeting with the producer of 'Five Easy Pieces,' which is my favorite movie. He introduced me to Francis, and I spent six months going to Napa and Buenos Aires, auditioning for Francis and doing these incredible improvisational games. It was a very bohemian audition process.

I've been in movies where so much of the conversation was about, 'Well, after this movie, you're gonna be the biggest movie star.' I sort of have learned that you never really can predict any of that.

If I tried to somehow wrap my head around the fact that Francis Ford Coppola directed my first movie, there's never a slot into which that ever fits in your mind.

It's not hard for me to access a bad actor. That's always there. It's actually kind of a load off your mind because, the worse you do, the better it goes.

It's funny: the reason I did 'Beautiful Creatures' was the same reason I did everything else - even though it was a genre film and existed at a more studio level, the script and the characters were so well written.

I've had that experience many, many, times - when you don't get roles. I'd developed a good muscle for shaking it off. I buy myself a present whenever I don't get a role that I really wanted. You get bummed out, and then you go, 'Oh! Now I get to go buy a present for myself.' That kind of helps.

I remember pretending to be the characters in the movies when I was a little kid.

Even though I grew up in L.A., no one in my family was in the movie industry. I've always felt whatever the opposite of disillusioned is. I guess illusioned with movies and with people in movies and things like that. It's all exciting to me.

I feel about romance the same way I do about a vocation: it's a calling. You have an inner intuition, an inner 'yes.' I don't know if it's destined or not, but certainly I couldn't imagine being the person I am today without the romantic experiences I've had.

I'm an actor because I love movies, and always have loved movies. I'm a film buff.

I would say that it's mainly about the director. It's a hard quality to find, but I always know whether I want to do something or not. The character is important to me, as is getting to work with people that I feel like I can learn from and make a great movie with.