Where are you calling from?

Manhattan, where I'm promoting Frequency.

How do you feel about touring and promoting this film?

Hey if you're promoting, you're working.

Are you frustrated at all by the trailer for Frequency - which gives away a lot of the surprise in the story?

Some people are surprised. It's the highest film that New Lines has ever tested across the board. It's a hard film to sell, it's hard to show a trailor. But everything you see is context and it just helps you understand the story better.

How close do you feel to Frequency in comparison to some of the other films - like The Thin Red Line, for example - that you've worked on?

I think this one will be the biggest hit - as far as people going to the movie. But, you know, The Thin Red Line was my first big film - my first big lead. And it helped me get this role.

How was your experience working with Terrence Mallick?

He's a good man, talented, an extraordinary man.

Have you gelled with any one particular director or film?

I just go and look at it as a job. I do what I do, and I do it well, and focus and take it one moment at a time.

Is this also how you approach your specific acting technique?

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

Given the scare of your own father's heart surgery, did you easily identify with John?

I identified with one aspect inside of him - which was the void he had in the beginning of the movie. He had no father. That void is how I associated with him. A lot of people who have lost someone close to them will be able to relate to this movie in that sense.

Do you think John is at all stereotyped - as the melancholic New York cop?

Have you ever seen what homicide cops do? They go and pull out bodies from stench and go and open up the corpse, with worms and stuff inside. And some of them crack and some don't. There's something similar between them and soldiers who go off to war.

Did you draw parallels between John and your character Private Witt from The Thin Red Line?

I try not to think about it like that. I just try to find whatever moves them and once I find that I kind of go from there. I don't know how that happens, it just eventually does. The goal is to make the character come to life.

From a very young age, John knew he wanted to be a cop when he grew up. Did you similarly know you would become an actor?

I didn't want to be an actor.

What did you want to be?

I wanted to be a basketball player.

What happened?

God gives you a talent and you have to follow through on it. Heart will get you so far - and it got me pretty far. But everybody has what I call a "Michael Jordan talent" - something that you do that's pretty unusual or you do it better than others and you can teach them something. I think we're all here to learn from each other.

Then, how did acting fall into your lap?

I did some voice impersonations that some people heard. And then I got accepted to Julliard. But I got a role in the film Wyatt Earp and [Julliard] wouldn't let me go back.

So does all your acting experience come from instinct and on-the-job experience?

Yes, from there, but also I was training with about ten different teachers in LA and I studied it in college, though I never majored in it because I never really thought I would be an actor.

Hoblit has described you as incredibly fearless. Is that a general attitude you have towards life?

If you analyze it to much, that which makes you who you are just goes away. I try not to think about it too much. But, you know, it takes one to know one, because Greg was a bit fearless to cast me on his instinct because Thin Red Line hadn't even come out yet.

Tell me about the character you're playing in Mimi Leder's new film, Pay It Forward?

I play a heroin addict.

How do you prepare for a role like that?

I go into the ghetto and hang out around people there.

Would you call that Method-based acting?

That would be a good analysis.

Are there certain actors who you study or are inspired by?

I just take what I need, a little bit from everybody. What hits me more than anything is a person - how they live their personal life is more impressive to me than how they act. I have to find people who are better people than they are actors. Jimmy Stewart. I got a chance to talk to him before he passed away and he's one of those people.

Do you ever feel like you lose a sense of self amidst the tangle of characters, films, fame?

You aren't as great as they say you are, and you aren't as bad either. You have to disconnect yourself from it. When you go home, you have to be who you are; people will forget who you are and the praise will stop. You have to be careful of fame. Nick Nolte told me one time that its like a red balloon full of air and it draws a lot of attention. But then once a needle pokes it, you're done.

Do you like what you do?

I love it. But you have to have a tremendous sense of responsibility and there are a lot of traps that you can get caught in. You have to keep listening to your friends and family.

Are your friends and family what keep you grounded?

And my faith in God.

Where do you think the path you're on will lead you?

Hopefully to keep working, keep doing great movies. I'm just trying to be a decent husband and potential father. You have to prioritize. I make sure my wife always comes first.