B.L. You must be one of the hardest working actors around. What is it that you look for when you get a script because your choices are so diverse?
P.S.H. It's nothing specific that I have in my mind like a checklist or anything. When I read a script it's something that just makes itself aware to me that is original. It might not be that the whole film is original but it may be something about the story or the characters or the writing that I find captivating piques my interest. Then I pay more attention and I start to look deeper if it's something that I want to do.

B.L. So with Cold Mountain, how much fun did you have playing this Reverend? Boy, was he a snake.
P.S.H. I did have a lot of fun. It was a lot of hard work too, it was both things. I think that he was actually a very positive character — I didn't see him as a snake. I see him as somebody who is actually a very life-affirming character.

B.L. When you get this kind of role, how much is off the page and how much of yourself did you bring to it?
P.S.H. You bring everything to the parts you play. Anybody worth himself or herself is giving it up every moment you are watching them act; that's the craft, you know. You can't do it like two thirds me, one third something else, and a splash of me. Everything is going to come from your life experience and imagination.

B.L. You of course reunited not only with Jude Law but also director Anthony Minghella whom you worked with on The Talented Mr. Ripley.
P.S.H. Yeah, that was one of the main reasons for doing Cold Mountain.

B.L. Going ahead a couple of years since you last worked with Jude, what impressed you most about his performance in Cold Mountain.
P.S.H. What's impressed me always, since working with him on Ripley, was his patience, his open mindedness, his tolerance, his acceptance, and all those things. All the good traits of somebody who has a lot of responsibilities and a lot of work to do, and sees those responsibilities through and finishes his work with flying colors. He really is somebody who you want on your side.

B.L. Anthony Minghella, what sets him apart from the dozens of directors you have worked with over the years?
P.S.H. He is in that group of directors who tackle extraordinary projects. He's about risking the failure in order to succeed. I do think that is what he is about at the end of the day. In order for this film to succeed he really had to risk failure every day he was shooting. That's a lot to handle, but he did it and that's why he's going to succeed with this one also.

B.L. It really is a magnificent movie, and actually it's one of those movies that the more you think about it, the more you like it. Have you seen the finished film?
P.S.H. Yes, I have.

B.L. What was your feeling on it?
P.S.H. I feel as you do. I saw it at the premiere and I was like, "It turned out all right, didn't it?" It's really a fine film and I think that people's work in it is wonderful. It's very upsetting and moving.

B.L. The busy man that you are, we are also going to see you in the New Year in Along Came Polly playing Ben Stiller's best buddy. You have said that it was the most hysterical script that you have ever read. What was it that got you?
P.S.H. It's funny, you'll see (laughing). It's really funny and I wouldn't just say that either. I have never really done a full-blown romantic comedy and there's a reason because those scripts aren't usually very funny sometimes and this one was. I recently just saw the finished product and I laughed, just like when I read the screenplay. There are some great comedic turns in this film and it's also quite romantic.

B.L. Did you have a hard time keeping a straight face with this cast?
P.S.H. Oh yeah, but mostly with Ben because most of my scenes are with him. The director would call us the Dom DeLuise and Burt Reynolds of our generation. If you remember Cannonball Run, at the end of the movie they always show the clips where they would be laughing. (laughs) So we would just do that to each other.

B.L. Big rumor and I hope it is true, that for your next role you are going to be playing Truman Capote?
P.S.H. We'll see.

B.L. This is in the works?
P.S.H. We'll see, yes.

B.L. I can't think of a better part for you. I'll never forget being on Broadway seeing Robert Morse in his very last performance in Tru. I think "wow, you would make an absolutely fabulous Capote!" What an amazing thing for you to be able to do.
P.S.H. Yeah, that's why I am trying not to jinx it. Look, we'll see. That's all I can say. It's something that is in the air and has movement and I hope that it happens.

B.L. Well I'll keep my fingers crossed because I would totally love to see you in that.
P.S.H. Thank you, I hope it works out too.

B.L. You also spent the summer on Broadway in Long Day's Journey Into Night. What does doing theater do for you that movies don't?
P.S.H. I like them the same and I really enjoy doing both, but theater is a challenge and it's kind of my life. I live in New York and I run a theater company with John Artees and about 70 percent of my artistic ability goes towards the theater. Not as an actor but as a director and as an artistic director. Then every year and a half I also act in a play, usually in a long run on Broadway or off Broadway for about five months or so. It's just the challenge of that. It's my life and it's something that I need to do because it works other aspects of my creativity, my mind and my emotions and myself as an artist while film works other areas. I need both of them in order for me to do the best work that I can.