THC: Do you think it's ever a risk, because Paul does know you so well, that the characters he writes for you are too specific to you, that they're not enough of a stretch of your abilities?

JR: It's always challenging. It's just such a rare opportunity to do anything that's truthful. Most of the time, you're just trying to when you do these larger Hollywood movies that are very genre- specific, they try to just get you to do it by numbers and cry on cue, and, you know what I mean? With Paul, it's like, even if the thing is so close to home, it never bothers me, because it's that much more truthful and it's that much more original, you know? It's always stranger than fiction.

THC: I know you've done a lot of stage work. Is it closer to stage work working with Paul then, because it is tapping more into a personal experience?

JR: Yeah.... I hadn't ever thought of it that way, but a lot of the great strength I think he has is as an audience. You know, people think of directors as, "Now go there! Go there! Now do this! Now, turn those lights up!" Paul can do all of that, but I think his real, like, secret weapon with actors is, he really listens. He's sitting there...staring intently at what you're doing and watching every single subtle little change that you make from take to take, and gets in there and talks with you about it, you know-doesn't talk too much--gives you a lot of freedom, and a lot of leeway to interpret how you're going to get what he's asked you to get. But yeah, it is like theater that way. You know...a lot of times in movies... they'll break scenes up. "Oh, we're just going to do a pick-up from this line," "we're just going to pop in for this." And it's all really choppy and fragmented and it just kind of feels like you're just hashing together this blueprint instead of a live performance. Paul loves to let things play out in a single, massive take.