He reads the script, draws a watercolor of how he thinks the character looks to him, works to get inside the head and body of the character, researches the time frame in which the character is set and pulls stuff from that era, gets the speech patterns down, walks around the house (according to his kids) BEING that character for weeks and driving them nuts, has lots of meetings with the writers and directors, works like a dog at the role. He can be inspired to do whatever movies he does because of the plot, the director, the character or the script, or anything else. He makes his own choices in terms of acting, and puts l20% of himself into doing the best he can do. His acting can best be described as Method, and the research he does is long and hard work.