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What do you try to give the other actor?

I always do exactly what you just said. I always try and give as much as I can, rather than get as much as I can. You’re very lucky if you work with an actor who is brilliant and very inspiring and gives you a lot. That’s why I try and do that myself, so sometimes if I’m doing off-camera dialogue - this would certainly happen with “Eternal Sunshine” - if Jim was doing a scene where the cameras or camera was just on him, I would be off camera acting my ass off because otherwise he wouldn’t have anything to react to. So you have to commit to that and continue to be that character off camera.

The only time I’ve been accepting of an actor not doing that for me was when I was doing “Quills.” There was a scene with Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine and myself and it was one of very few scenes that we were all in together. We shot everything on Geoffrey, shot everything on Joaquin, shot everything on Michael, and it was round onto me. I’d been acting my heart out with everyone else for everyone else’s close ups and Michael turned around to me, Michael Caine, the great Michael Caine, Sir Michael Caine, turned around to me and said, “Darling, do you mind, I’ve got to be somewhere a little bit later. Do you mind if I just take my costume off?” And I thought he just meant maybe his jacket or something like that. No, back to dressing room, wig off, full normal clothing on. And he walked back onto set and I was like, “Oh, that’s what you meant.” But he still acted his heart out. How can you not forgive Michael Caine for something like that? He’s so charming and so funny.

”Eternal Sunshine” is about erasing memories. Is there a piece of pop culture would you like to erase?

No, I don't think so. I don’t really believe in the idea of that process. I just think that the good and the bad experiences that we all have in our lives are what forms us as human beings. There’s nothing that I would erase, no movie, no song, no nothing. “Once more, you opened the door…” I’ve certainly heard that too many times, but no, you can’t erase those things. They’re all a part of our pasts. No, I’m very grateful for some of the things that I’ve been through, how horrible they might have felt at the time, they make you stronger.