One weight question. You look like you are pretty much at your fighting weight again. How did you go about gaining it all back? You can't just pig out and stay healthy.
It's a little more dangerous than dropping it. Dropping it, there was a system. Four pounds a week and it goes straight down. Yeah, I'm hungry but this is what I'm doing. Coming back, the digestive has to get back in shape again. This is the most interesting part. The first time I ate a regular meal, my body immediately remembered, 'Oh, we live at 182.' So it wants to sprint back. And you just have to pull the reins and go ease off and eat more healthy. But the first time I ate a meal the size I used to eat at 182, it immediately remembered. I could feel it. My diet has changed. It's not like it is before. On purpose.
Did you make a deal with the devil, have a romantic-comedy intervention or what? How did this shift from mainstream commercial movies to smaller art-house films come about?
I've been asked this question many times and I've thought about it myself. Was there a hinge point anywhere? What I do know I did was I took about a year and a half, two years off. I was receiving scripts, there were some action scripts and there were some romantic comedies. Some I even liked. Some that came with beautiful pay checks. But I said, "Boy I feel like I can do that tomorrow." There was nothing wrong with them. But I was like, "You know what? I am at a point right now that I don't have to work. If I can just skip work, I can sit back." And I also had the added bonus that we had our first child. I thought I am going to be dad and just sit back in the shadows and see if I get inspired. I had a talk with my agent and said, "No more right now." That message took a while to get across because I kept receiving those scripts. And then I said, "No, I'm not going to do them."
When did you start getting other types of offers?
It went through saying no to things and then it kind of dried up. There was nothing. Then a funny thing happened. It was about two years after that William Friedkin (the director of "Killer Joe") calls, Stephen Soderbergh ("Magic Mike") calls, Lee Daniels ("The Paperboy") calls. I didn't chase any of those. In kind of a weird way that life works, by saying no to those things and sitting in a neutral position, it's like the target drew the arrow. What I was looking for swung back and showed up. And I was like yep, yep and yep. All of them came to me. Except "Dallas Buyers Club." "Dallas Buyers Club" was something I've had for years. I knew it was what I'd like to do. So, for whatever reason, I attracted those things and then went after them. What I found—this is something I notice now as I explain it—is I really kind of said I really want to have an experience. I am going to go for something where I say, "I'm excited about this, I am scared about it for the right reasons, it's intriguing, I can't forget about it, it's on my mind, it's got its teeth in me." I want the experience.
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