On living with actor Heath Ledger…
“Boy, we partied, man. They were crazy days, man. Oh f**k, I was out of control. Just partying all the time. We’d go surfing – Heath taught me to surf – and we’d get up at 6am and take off to the northern beaches and surf in the sunrise, and then cruise around, and girls and beer and parties.” (NW Magazine)
On convincing Heath Ledger to take up acting as a career…
“We worked together in Perth on a TV show called Sweat. When I met Heath there was something extremely charismatic about him. Obviously he had talent, and I convinced him to move out of Perth and come to Sydney — the Hollywood of Australia, if you like. So I just convinced him to do that and looked after him when he arrived. We got a flat in Bondi.” (The New Zealand Press)
On friends helping friends…
“Heath, I believed in him when I first met him, and helped and supported him. He went on to obvious success in the States and then I had him support me. It can be a lonely, horrible, hard place. It’s great just to have someone to call to say ‘I know, man, I was there’.” (The Northern Echo)
On being friends with both Heath and his girlfriend actress Naomi Watts…
“It is a little weird now, going over to Heath’s place. It’s like, `Hi Heath, hi Nomes.’ Very strange!” (TV Week)
On dating customs Down Under…
“In LA it’s kind of common to date some random girl or guy, whereas back home it’s more like you’ll have your group of friends and you’ll all kind of hang out, and then eventually there’ll be a girl in the mix, and if you get on, then the next minute you’ll be together. This whole dating process doesn’t happen.” (Herald Sun)
On Hollywood…
“It’s not my ideal place. Los Angeles is so much about Hollywood and the business is so much a part of your life. There’s a different level of ego here and I don’t really want that to become my daily concern. It’s not a lifestyle I really want. I am still really sceptical about the whole thing and trying to remain realistic. I don’t really go to any of the parties. I went to a couple when I first got here but I was bored shitless by it all. It’s not really my scene.”
On his career…
“I always thought I’d go to university and then get a real job, you know. Now I want to do stuff that really makes me happy. Although I’m still trying to work out what that is. But for me there are always constants.”
On spare time…
“I really like swing dancing, that’s fun. I took lessons in New York and LA. I’m shit at it but I like it!” (NW Magazine)
On watching the original “The Ring” (“Ringu”) movie for the first time…
“We [Martin, Heath Ledger, and a bunch of other friends] were sitting on the floor and, although I knew the script, at that climactic moment we all just jumped backwards. We screamed like girls. Very manly girls though. And I was thinking, ‘Oh wow, this could be a very good movie’.” (New Zealand Herald)
On horror films…
“I’m not a big fan of horror movies, especially the recent teen-slasher sort of ones.” (New Zealand Herald)
On American versus Down Under humour…
“The Americans are a little different that way. They get offended. They don’t realise if someone says, ‘Hey, you big dick,’ it means they like you.” (New Zealand Herald)