Q: How much research did you do for this? Did you get into quantum physics and science to prepare for this role?

NICOLAS: I grew up with a professor so that was all the research that I really needed. I just used my own recall of what that experience was like.

Q: So you could relate from that experience, growing up with it?

NICOLAS: Yeah.

Q: This is the second movie (after "Next") you've done where foretelling future events is involved. What's your interest in this idea? Do you think we have a predetermined future or is it all randomness?

NICOLAS: At the risk at impinging on your own personal opinions and your own relationship to the movie, I would just offer that I'm not a chaos theorist.

Q: How did your relationship with your own son inform your relationship to your son in the film?

NICOLAS: Well, I dedicate the movie to my first son, because that's what the relationship was really. It was me and him. I just have memories and this script came to me at the right time. I had the life experiences and the emotional resources to play John Koestler and indeed some of the lines in the scenes came from direct memories of my times with Weston [Cage]. I had been looking for a way to express those feelings for a long time and having been a single father, a single father out in California I know that there is a gender bias depending on which lawyer or which psychologist or family therapist that you talk to. It's like there's a full moon out if a father wants to see his son. That's just not true. Just because you're a man doesn't mean that you can't raise your kid. I think that families should stay together, but if you are a single father don't give up no matter what they say. So I wanted to have a chance to express that, to show that archetype in a movie, that you can have a devoted, positive relationship between that family, a father and a son as well.

Q: Thsi movie has that message about living each day to the fullest. Were you affected at all by the moral of the story?

NICOLAS: Well, first of all, any opinion I give is not as important as your opinion. Your opinion is what matters to me and so if that's what you took from the movie then that's absolutely correct. Any awakenings that I may have had happened before I said yes to the movie. So I didn't really learn anything or get anything from it, but I was just ready to express it.

Q: But is that what attracted you to the script then? The idea that you were ready to express it?

NICOLAS: At the time the script came to me, I felt I was in sync with Alex [Proyas] and with the story. It's one of those rare opportunities where I felt like the filmmaker and myself were completely on the same page philosophically and in terms of style. Alex is an artist. He's an original and he can really make a movie look beautifully designed in a way that has a signature, his signature. But having said that we both agreed that the character should be almost cinema verite, that there should be almost a documentary style to the performances so that it would make the experience more terrifying for you and perhaps more visceral in some way.

Q: With economic climate being what it is today, what role is Hollywood playing in these times?

NICOLAS: Well, more than ever movies reveal themselves as healing, as helpful, as encouraging, as escapist, anything that makes someone get through their day in these times. It's the best form of entertainment and it's still arguably the most inexpensive form of entertainment. I always say to myself that if I can make a movie that makes a kid smile or gives them some hope or gives them something to get excited about then I'm applying myself in the best way that I can. I don't think that just goes for kids. I think that it goes for adults as well and for families. So there is a need to go to the movies and just shut your mind off from the problems that are happening in our daily lives, the stresses between countries, the economy and global warming – all of those things that are on our minds. But at the same time I think that movies can help guide us through those experiences because I think all art tries to grapple with, redefine, come to terms with, and express what's happening now when it's working. You can be entertained but you can also be stimulated to think about things. "Knowing" is one of those movies where you're going to get the spectacle and you're going to have the entertainment in the grand science fiction tradition, but also it will perhaps stimulate some discussion to help you sort out on your own where you might chose to go in terms of your own needs. Now I say that without preaching. It's up to you what you get from the movie.

Q: Is it realistic to expect that you'd have real life changing experiences while making a movie that change your life in any way? Do films change your life in that way?

NICOLAS: The making of movies? Certainly they can. Anything is possible. Just the other day I was invited to go down to the subway rails and to be two foot from a whooshing subway train because I had to pass getting a certificate for subway rail safety. I never would've been in that situation before if I wasn't making movies. It was dangerous, but at the same time it was fascinating and got me thinking about the third rail, the awesome third rail. One of the great bonuses of being a film actor is that I get to go to different places, meet inspiring people and learn different things. So all those details add up, but again with "Knowing," I'd already kind of sorted through whatever philosophies I wanted or needed to come to terms with before the movie came to me.

Q: What about science fiction as a genre appeals to you and why do you think it's suited to support the discussion we're having now about philosophy?

NICOLAS: Well, good science fiction is intelligent. It asks big questions that are on people's minds. It's not impossible. It has some sort of root in the abstract. So automatically you're getting closer to potentially divine sources of interest because it is abstract. It's one of the only ways that a film actor can express himself in the abstract and have audiences still go along for the ride. They don't contend it. They accept it, that they're going to go places that are a bit more of the imagination, a bit more out there and that's more and more where I like to dance. The other thing is that I got a little tired of movies where I had to shoot people and I got to thinking about the power of film and what that power is. The power is in fact that it really can change people's minds. I had that experience with "China Syndrome." It made me aware. So I thought if it was this powerful, the power to change people's minds then perhaps I should just be a little more responsible with that power. That's not to say that I don't believe in freedom of speech. I do. It's just that at this point in my life, in my interests I would rather entertain you with the spectacle and with the imagination as opposed to servicing your blood lust appetites. But that's not to say that I might not find myself in that situation again. There are ways of doing it, even by showing it where it can be ironic and there can be awareness in that as well. Just not gratuitous in the sense that I want you to get off by watching someone's head explode.

Q: Have you changed your approach to films since having another child and did you have any input into changing this film's script to a father and son?

NICOLAS: Well, I dedicated the movie to my first son because of those experiences that I had with him as a single father. I don't want to repeat myself, but I don't think that I would've been able to play the part twenty years ago. I think that I needed to have those memories in order to play John Koestler.

Q: What's on your plate for the upcoming future as one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood?

NICOLAS: Well, I have a movie called "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" coming out. Werner Herzog directed that. I have a movie called "Season of the Witch" coming out that Dominic Sena directed and now this week I'll be commencing photography on "Sorcerer's Apprentice." Plus, I have two animated features coming out which hopefully make the kids smile.

Q: This film talks about randomness versus fate and science versus fate. Do you think there's room for both?

NICOLAS: Again, without impending on your own personal choice, there are going to be those that wear the hat of religion and those that wear the hat of science and I still don't really understand why they can't wear both hats because personally I think that they go beautifully together.

Q: Doing 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' as a live action film, what's the take on the story itself and on the sorcerer?

NICOLAS: Well, I haven't even started filming yet, but I would like to say that the take is that it's going to entertain you, that sorcerer is good, but there is going to be moments where he's a little mysterious and just a little perhaps scary to look at. There's going to be a lot of fantasy and there's going to be some amazing FX. I'm working with Jay Baruchel who I think is fantastic.

Q: He's the apprentice?

NICOLAS: He is, yeah. We're going to have some laughs. I can already feel it.

Q: How do you think you would handle the gift of knowing the future like this movie deals with?

NICOLAS: I think that for me I would want to know when it came to my children, if there was a way that I could prevent something. I don't think there's anything that would take over my parental survival instincts, but other than that I like surprises. I think that if we knew everything that was going to happen it would be very, very boring.

Q: Have your children ever expressed an interest in acting and how would you feel about that? Also, have you ever had a sense of knowing, an inclination that came true?

NICOLAS: My oldest son, right now he's very immersed in his music, but there might be a time when chooses to go into the cinema. My youngest son is three and a half. And then yes, I think we all have. I think it's a part of being human having those experiences, call it what you want déjà vu or whatever. You can explain it away with science or you can explain it with something perhaps more paranormal, but I think they're still talking about the same thing.

Q: There's a really intense disaster sequence with the plane crash. How much of that was real and how much was CGI?

NICOLAS: That particular sequence with the exception of the plane itself was all real. It was one shot and we rehearsed it all day long. That made it both easier for me to do the scene and also really difficult because it was easy in that those were real people and I was genuinely scared for them. So I didn't have to act that. You are actually seeing a guy who's terrified because those are people who are on fire. They're stunt people, but they're still people and I took it personally that none of them get hurt. So I had to really rehearse it all day and get to the end of the shot without any mistakes because I didn't want to go back to the beginning again and have them light those people on fire again. I don't care if they get paid again. I was worried about them. That was the difficult part of it, making sure that no one got hurt. Now the subway scene was different. That was more imagination.

Q: Did you film the plane sequence once then or did you have to do it again?

NICOLAS: Actually, I don't remember how many takes we did. I seem to recall that we got it done fairly quickly, under five takes which was great because it was scary.

Q: It's kind of unusual to have a family tree that cuts across so many talented generations. Do you ever wonder what it is about your family in that way?

NICOLAS: I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about it, to be perfectly honest. You can think about it. I'm not going to think about it [laughs].

Q: Where does your energy and passion for acting come from?

NICOLAS: It changed. In the beginning it came from an almost punk rock need to express a lot of anger wherever that may have come from. As I got older it became or is coming more from a place of wanting to use the craft to help others in some way, to hold a mirror up to the situations that we're going through, to actually be more cautious about the way that I use the power of film and to see if there's anything that I can do in the performances that will resonate in the public a similar string that's on people's minds and is on my mind. That way we have that relationship.

Q: Both the "National Treasure" films were some of your most successful. Are you looking forward to a third one and do you have any idea where the franchise might go?

NICOLAS: Yeah, I'm hopeful. Those movies make a lot of people happy. I don't know yet where it will go or what the story will be because the auspices are all right here right now working on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." There was some talk about it maybe going into the south.

Q: Do you think you'll make it later this year?

NICOLAS: I really don't know. I wish that I did, but I haven't got a clue. That sounds oddly Ben Gates [laughs].

Q: Which one of your earlier roles still resonate for you on a second viewing?

NICOLAS: I don't really watch my movies again, but I can speak by the echo of it. I would say that "Wild at Heart" and "Vampire's Kiss"' had more of that kind of energy to it. That's not to say that I can't still get kind of punk rock or angry, but I just think that I'm doing it for different reasons now.

"Knowing" opens in theaters this Friday.