Talk:Edward Norton

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First of all, you never make all things for all people and can't always pander to the broadest denominator. I keep an eye toward doing the themes that interest me. Do they move me? Interest me? Make me think? When I run across something that is provocative in an unsettling way, it appeals to me.

It's a nice position to be in; I'm lucky. At the same time, all the excitement of that has been put into stark perspective ... In some ways, the highs of it have been blunted, which in a way, is a gift.

The more you can create that magic bubble, that suspension of disbelief, for a while, the better.

I'm an actor and, each time out, I'm trying to convince the audience that I'm this character. Every little thing that people know about you as a person impedes your ability to achieve that kind of terrific suspension of disbelief that happens when an audience goes with an actor and character [he's] playing.

I've never felt any particular encroachment of the 'celebrity' stuff into my life.

Life, like poker has an element of risk. It shouldn't be avoided. It should be faced.

I don't smoke and I don't want to smoke. I am not a fan of gratuitous smoking in films.

Acting? It's a longstanding compulsion I've had since I was about five or six years old. I can literally identify the moment it struck me. I went to see a play [If I Were a Princess] in which a babysitter of mine [Betsy True, who later acted on Broadway] was performing. I was completely shell-shocked by the magic of this little community-theater play; it just riveted me.

Norton is perfect for the role. Even in the grip of passion, he acts as though he's a reasonable guy, leading from his head.
- The San Francisco Chronicle

One of the movie's chief assets is a magnetic lead performance by Edward Norton. He has been loudly heralded in the past for his showy work in Primal Fear and The People vs. Larry Flynt, but I think the actor has really proven himself this year. In Rounders he was a perfectly wiry, likable Ratzo Rizzo-style heel who easily seduced golden boy Matt Damon into his grifting schemes. Here, he does a remarkable turnabout as an intensely charismatic, beefed-up skinhead who lives by his own twisted, hatefully bigoted rhetoric.
- Mr. Showbiz

There's scarcely a false note to the performance of either Furlong or Norton, the latter an almost certain Academy Award nominee.
- Box Office Magazine

Norton is electrifyingly good. He's genuinely scary and that gives the audience every reason to fear for Mike's safety.
- Louis B. Hobson: Calgary Sun

Norton...is terrific as the bottom-feeding Worm, simultaneously funny and infuriating.
- Kansas City Star

Norton is superb in one of the bad-boy roles that will probably color the shape of his career.
- The Washington Post

Norton energizes virtually every scene he's in. The guy's been in four movies and he's been great in each of them as totally different characters: a psycho in "Primal Fear," a green but likable lawyer in "The People vs. Larry Flynt," a young Manhattanite in love in "Everyone Says I Love You" and now this lowlife gambler. He's utterly natural, as is Damon, but in a completely different way. Norton's a chameleon who turns into whatever character he's playing.
- The Post-Gazette

Norton...is a joy to watch. He is genuinely befuddled as his character gets swept away by the emotions that make him want to sing.
- Box Office Magazine

He brilliantly mixes timidity and rage in developing a character who is at once sympathetic and scary. Audiences are likely to find they can't get enough of his exceptional performance, as well as his coy smile.
- The San Francisco Chronicle