The Age, 13 March 2001

Guy Pearce doesn't have the energy to play the Hollywood game and doesn't care about being an A-list actor.

In the United States to promote his latest small film, Memento, the Melbourne-based Pearce told the New York Post that the Hollywood scene had always been a turn-off and he was happy to stay out of it.

"I just can't get my head around the whole attitude that someone's hot, and then he's not. I'm not interested in playing that game," said Pearce.

"Maybe if I hadn't had the experience of starring in the top-rated TV show in Australia and Britain when I was very young, I'd have the energy to endure that."

From 1986 to 1990 Pearce starred in Neighbours. He earned international notice in 1994 for The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert and was courted by studios as one of the brightest young stars in Hollywood after his role in LA Confidential in 1997.

While LA Confidential co-star, Russell Crowe, has become a fully fledged A-lister with two Oscar nominations, Pearce said being a big star had not been a priority.

"I'm more comfortable doing smaller, intimate-type things rather than summer blockbusters," he said.

"A lot of people seem let down by the choices I've made. But that's their problem."

In Memento, Pearce plays a man suffering from short-term memory loss who tries to hunt down his wife's killer.

The film, which opens on Friday in the US and next month in Australia, received good reviews at several European film contests and at the Sundance Film Festival.