I was under the impression I had signed a three-year contract. I want to be back. I expect to be back. I will be back.
I'm hesitant anytime someone puts a contract in front of me that has two-year options.
I prayed about it, and I do believe that the Lord, at least in my life, likes to use one-year contracts and not long-term contracts.
Everything goes fast in football. You can be transferred tomorrow, as you can be in one or two years.
My first 10-day contract in Dallas. It was long because we had five games in 10 days. Players get called up on a 10-day and their team might only have a schedule of three games. So I got to play in five games and I was fortunate for that.
A five-year contract is worth no more than a six-month contract these days; it's very concerning.
It (his contract) has options through the year 2020 or until the last Rocky movie is made.
I don't want to be like those guys that, two or three years into their contract, they do really good, and then they don't care.
I initially went into 'Coronation Street' for three months. If they had said back then, 'Do you want to do it for six years?' I probably would have said, 'I don't think so.'
The system in Germany is different, as you sign up with a company for two or three years, and you work exclusively with them; you can't do any film work on the side.
You always have to sign contracts for several years, if they want to pick you up. It's kind of a strange scenario. They have the option or not.
You see, in America, it's quite standard for an actor to sign, at the beginning of a series, for five or seven years. The maximum any British agent will allow you to have over an actor is three years.
My contract is just for this year, but I have an option for next year. It is not signed at this moment, but I am only concentrating on this year. I don't know exactly what I will do in the future.
It's not something to complain about, but just the major difference between college and the pros is that in college you're guaranteed four to five years so long as you don't do anything criminally and in the pros you're guaranteed one day because you can be cut the next.
Someone asked me, 'How long do you intend to do 'Deadwood'?' And part of my sociopathology, I say, 'Well, when does my contract run out?' And I realize my contract ran out at the end of four seasons.
It's not like I can say, 'I have signed for three years; now we'll win three straight titles.'
When you need to renew your contract, you must demonstrate why they are renewing your contract.
Obviously, the closer you get to that moment, the more you start to realize 'this is the last year of my contract.'
What's difficult for American audiences is that they're used to a system here where you can get an actor for five years or even seven, and that is signed for at the audition. Whereas in England, no agent will give you an actor for more than three years.
The agent never receipts his bill, puts his hat on and bows himself out. He stays around forever, not only for as long as you can write anything that anyone will buy, but as long as anyone will buy any portion of any right to anything that you ever did write. He just takes ten per cent of your life.
When you sign up for a show in the United States, it's six or seven years, generally speaking.
