A lot of films come out before they're finished.
For The Truman Show, I worked for a few weeks, do my gig, then I was done.
I am not one of these guys who works job after job after job.
I certainly didn't begin this to begin a career as film director. But I don't want to do direct just to direct.
I chose films made by people I wanted to work with, about subject matter I thought was intriguing.
I connect as a person who believes in God. I've been somewhat lazy in my pursuit of what my beliefs really are.
I feel like my place in this industry is still progressing.
I got in athletics, which gave me self-esteem and made me feel like I had a place in the world; that was the initial attraction with acting for me.
I had been living with this thing, Pollock, for years, and the first few weeks in Germany, I didn't even look at it.
I had seen some theater and really loved it. So I began studying acting at the University of Oklahoma, and then I went on to CalArts for a couple of years.
I had some really dear friends who died from AIDS-one in particular. His family wasn't around and he didn't have many friends. I spent a lot of time with him in his later days.
I have a tight family group that's really important to me. I don't want to work all the time.
I like to act with people that know what they're doing.
I listen to National Public Radio, which, to me at least, presents the most rounded view of things.
I lived with a guy who had just come back from Vietnam. He'd lost a leg and an arm and was not in a good place emotionally.
I love this country very much, and I'm proud to live here, but I think our current administration is extreme. These are not merely conservative people, these are extreme right-wing people.
I made career decisions that came from the part of me who wanted to shun the limelight.
I think most people that are looked upon as doing something daring don't necessarily think of it that way-they do what they have to do.
I try not to get locked in. I've played a number of bad guys, a number of military guys, and a number of other kinds of parts.
I was concerned about filling my life up with something important to me. To me, it was just necessary.
I was this jock playing football and baseball for 20 years and had virtually no aesthetic development.
I'm not an activist per se, but I have strong feelings about things. People can jump on celebrities for being ill-informed or naive, but I've got a right to say what I believe.
I've always wanted to work with Paul Newman. I had a couple opportunities in the past, and I didn't take advantage of it, so it was really fun to be working with him.
If I started worrying about how my constituents are going to react to every move I make, I wouldn't be able to do my job here. I'll do what I think is right and explain it later.
If I'm daring at all, I guess it would be emotionally. I try to keep things interesting for myself and to do things that challenge me.
In the past 10 years, I've looked at life as this Pollock stuff. And now I'm almost in the post Pollock phase.
It's about being open to the moment of creation, not manipulating it, and trusting that you may not know where to go.
It's hard to see a film that's been made from a book that you really loved because it's such a different experience.
It's not like I want to start a career as a director, I just had a particular feeling and I didn't want to hand the vision over.
Jack Nicholson was saying whatever you feel about the Oscars, it gets into your nervous system and infiltrates your life.
One of the first things I learned about acting was, the only person you compete against is yourself.
Pollock said several times that he couldn't separate himself from his art. Not knowing much about modern art when I began to read about him, I was much more his persona - his struggles as a human being - that was interesting to me.
Seeing what happens when you rip yourself open is what your job is all about.
There's a lot of intellectual work that goes into preparing for a role. Then it becomes a much more intuitive exploration.
There's always a reaction based on fear. People assume if you're criticizing a decision to go to war, then you're saying something against the soldiers-which is not the case.
When Bush first got elected, the very first time there was talk of going to war with Iraq, the mainstream media gave his position total credibility. I didn't get it then, and I don't get it now.
When I decided to direct, never having done that before, is something I'm very proud of.
You can mostly forget ethnic or religious differences. The competition for a bigger share of the oil proceeds is behind much of the fighting.
You can't betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.
You get three hours' sleep and then you start all over again. Relentless. Pre-production was almost harder than filming. I was all over the city every day. It was really exhausting.
You look at a guy like Lance Armstrong, and you have to be inspired. I sat next to Kirk Douglas the other day, and he's inspiring for fighting through his stroke.
Ed has been nominated 3 times for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Award; in 1996 for “Apollo 13” in 1999 for “The Truman Show” and in 2003 for “The Hours”. He has also been nominated once for a Best Actor Oscar Award in 2001 for “Pollock”.
Ed received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the California Institute of the Arts.
Ed married actress Amy Madigan in 1983, they have one child Lily Dolores Harris.
Ed attended Columbia University in New York, where he played football.
Ed is the son-in-law of John Madigan; he had a voice part in Ed’s movie “Pollack”
Ed has a stepbrother who lives in Norman, Oklahoma, that is where Ed attended the University of Oklahoma.
Ed graduated from Tenafly High School, Tennafly, New Jersey.
Ed is 5’9” (1.75 m) tall.
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