Ultimately, I think the movie's about working as a means of finding meaning in your life. It's about the lesson, the great lesson, of just working, working and being productive.

I think ever since Numbers ended, I've been trying to find a way to get back in a situation like that. It was lovely to drive in traffic with other people going to their jobs every day.

At that time in my career, everything ended up moving so fast, honestly. Within the first five years of my career, I think I did two TV series and four big movies, and I've never been that hot again in my career.

I remember at the time, there were all these teen movies being made. It was this resurgence of John Hughes-esque teen comedies. I was sent a lot of them to audition for, and a lot of them at the time didn't really impress me. I remember I was sent one called East Grand Rapids High, which ended up becoming American Pie, and I didn't like it. Although I think I did audition for it.

[Lauren Ambrose's] character [in Can't Hardly Wait] feels real and unexaggerated and becomes sort of a heroine archetype. I think that was cool. It wasn't in every one of those comedies.

In fact, one of the funny stories from that set [of Hail, Caesar!] is we were shooting my scene, and around lunchtime, Terrence Malick shows up on set. He was uninvited and no one knew who he was. But I knew, just looking at him. I was like, "Holy moley, that's Terrence Malick!" So I went and told the PA, "Hey, Terrence Malick is here, and I think he wants to see the Coen brothers. He wants to talk to Joel and Ethan." He just showed up unannounced, uninvited, and I guess they spent their lunch hour with him.

It looks glamorous and wonderful, but it's a job like any other. And I think that's their humility coming through, Joel [Coen] and Ethan's [Coen] humility. I think they really believe they are tradesmen, craftsmen, and they're just pursuing their trade, their craft, and doing the best they can with it.