Quotes About Actor Roles

#1. I'm kind of in a middle space, being marketed as a biracial actor. Roles are written either stereotypically black, or they're written 'normal,' which is just code for white.

Jesse Williams

#2. I don't prepare for my roles. I don't watch movies to get inspired. I don't dig deep. I'll never be that type of actor, and I doubt that I ever will be.

Bow Wow

#3. I never thought I would get married and have kids. I thought I was going to be a gypsy actor, traveling all over the world playing the great roles. I ended up having a kid very young, and it put things in perspective.

Bobby Cannavale

#4. I think I'm fortunate as an actor in that I do seem to get opportunities to play roles that aren't necessarily typical of what I've done before.

Martin Henderson

#5. It was inevitable at some point that I would bump into one of my father's plays. The reality of the situation is that I'm a jobbing actor, and any actor would give their eye-teeth to have one of those roles. It's a no-brainer! I'm pleased the stars have aligned around 'Arcadia.'

Ed Stoppard

#6. There are tons of different reasons why you do TV series and why you don't, and how it'll affect your career, and all that. Without a doubt, it has always come down to the script for me. I'm an actor who wants to do great parts, and I've been very fortunate, for a long time, to get meaty roles.

Patrick Wilson

#7. And watched Alan Rickman act up a storm in Private Lives. Someone once said that this highly mannered actor had made a career out of being brilliant in roles where no brilliance was required.

Joe Queenan

#8. When I closed in "King Lear" I went into a period of depression for about three weeks, and every actor I've talked to who's ever played a major, major Shakespeare role has done this.

Frank Langella

#9. I don't want to be 45 competing with 20-year-olds, running to go get Botox. I want to be an expressive actor hired for the age that I am, portraying women who are my age: 40. I'm just hoping I can find some of those roles to play. Otherwise, I have to find something else.

Debi Mazar

#10. It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger's diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor.

Kevin Rudd

#11. I don't think an actor ever wants to establish an image. That certainly hurt me, and yet that is also what made me successful and eventually able to do more challenging roles.

Farrah Fawcett

#12. If you're just an actor you're reactive. You're saying, "Well, I hope Hollywood gives me a role, or gives me a chance at a role," whereas if you can generate your own content, then you can go where you want to go.

Matt Damon

#13. As an actor, you're just brought on to fill one role, so it's nice to see what the entire journey is like. As much as I'd be allowed to do it, I would do it. I love it.

Shiri Appleby

#14. As a jobbing actor, you can't afford to be choosy; if you're typed, you're generally working. I still feel that way, and the thing is, even within the horror genre, I now get to play all kinds of different roles.

Robert Englund

#15. I love to play different roles. That's just the kind of actor I am.

Idris Elba

#16. Honestly, I look at the project and I look at the people attached and I look at the director. If it's a role that I feel will help me, as an actor, then I'll definitely take it.

Sasha Grey

#17. I think my experience as an actor helps me to write anything. It certainly helped me to write 'August Osage County.' It helps me to write any play that I'm working on because I think one of the things I do well is write good roles for actors.

Tracy Letts

#18. I love when I get to play these characters that are bigger than life. There are roles in animation that I never get to do in real life - and it appeals to my ego as an actor to play the Queen of Everything. I admit it.

Virginia Madsen

#19. For me, it doesn't matter whether it's a comedy, a Western or horror. As long as you've got a good story to tell, the genre almost doesn't matter. As an actor playing the role, it's all rooted in reality.

Patrick Wilson

#20. One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else's shoes. And when I look at the roles I've played, I'm kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I've had and the different things I've learned.

Willem Dafoe

#21. My sexual nature is irrelevant. I'm an actor, I play roles, fragments of myself.

David Bowie

#22. With theatre, we all agree to suspend our disbelief about so many things, but not about race. It's totally OK to have one actor playing five roles - people are willing to believe that. But they won't believe it if there's a black or an Asian kid who has white parents. What does that say about us?

David Henry Hwang

#23. I want to be an actor who always tries the best regardless of roles.

Rain

#24. I am not an insecure actor, and this reflects in the films I have done. Yes, there was a phase when I was adamant on solo hero roles, but that is over now.

Randeep Hooda

#25. If anything, as a general rule, the cheaper the movie the more creative the experience, generally speaking. Its not to denigrate expensive movies. I dont want to seem biting the hands that feed me, but with big movies, especially with a lot of effects, the role of the actor is somewhat diminished.

Alfred Molina

#26. Robert Taylor was not only a splendid actor in a wide variety of roles but one of the most handsome men in the western world.

Audrey Meadows

#27. I think every actor has their list of roles that were near misses. I've had my share.

Michael Eklund

#28. To be an actor in the society in Israel, you have to be ten times better than the Israeli Jews. To get the roles in mainstream theater or to get any role, not typecast as an Arab. And also if you are ten times better, not all the time you get the opportunity.

Ali Suliman

#29. I'm an actor, and I don't look at myself as providing comic relief. I have done diverse and dark roles such as a psycho, murderer, and others in films such as 'Don', 'Eklavya' and '3 Idiots.'

Boman Irani

#30. That's the joy of getting to be an actor - getting to play all kinds of different roles and showing so many different sides of yourself.

Laura Osnes

#31. For me, choice is the most important thing because I'm going to be an adult actor pretty soon. So I've got to be choosing the right roles now so that by the time I get to that age there will be wide options available.

Haley Joel Osment

#32. I'd love to be remembered as a character actor who brought illumination to roles in wonderful plays and who delivered performances that made people think and rethink those roles.

David Suchet

#33. I don't get offered leading parts. I suppose I've become a kind of character actor or sideman. I think it had to do with probably in the '90s, I refused so many leading roles that they gave up on me, or I just became unpopular, or I became old. All those reasons.

Sam Shepard

#34. Every actor is riddled with insecurity, of course. But weirdly, I don't really find that I'd be daunted with taking on roles or anything.

Martin Freeman

#35. I have a friend who says that roles choose you at the time that you need them most, and you have to believe, as an actor, if you didn't get a part that you really, really wanted, and it went to someone else, it was because it was theirs to begin with.

Emma Stone

#36. Every role is easy. As an actor it is my job to make my job easy. If I start hyperventilating about my roles, then how will I do it? So, with all my roles, somewhere I feel comfortable about them, and that is why I play them.

Rani Mukerji

#37. When an actor is offered a role, more often than not - maybe 90 percent of the time - you read it and you say, "I'll take it."

Richard Kind

#38. My whole drive to be an actor was finding roles that I really believed represent modern women, the struggles that we deal with. Women who are strong and capable and in control of their own lives.

Reese Witherspoon

#39. Being large and muscular, you are not taken very seriously as an actor. When bigger roles come up and the actor needs to be muscular they tend to cast a regular sized actor and get him to hit the weight program as opposed to hiring an actor who's already muscular and developed in that area.

James Preston Rogers

#40. I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by the roles I take.

Thandie Newton

#41. I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.

Chadwick Boseman

#42. As an actor, you're supposed to be able to form yourself into different characters and different roles. It's a transformation, and it is awesome.

Katie Cassidy

#43. For me, as an actor, just to keep acting and to keep being able to work and to do different roles and challenging roles, that's something I'd love to do.

Stephen Hunter

#44. I think being an actor makes me a better writer and vice versa. I know the kinds of roles I would kill to play, and I try to create them for others.

Katori Hall

#45. So as long as I'm a working actor, I can improve. I want to work with people that frighten me and excite me, and characters that I don't believe I'm the best person for the part but I'm still gonna try anyway. Those are my favorite roles.

Anne Hathaway

#46. To be an actor you need four things: energy, concentration, a lot of luck and, of course, good roles.

Charlton Heston

#47. I've wanted to be an actor since I was 6 years old. I was literally picked off the streets of Paris ... while I was modeling there. I was asked to audition for Oliver Stone's 'Alexander.' I didn't get the part, but that led to commercials and roles in South Africa.

Tanit Phoenix

#48. I'm so different to the roles I play, and perhaps that's why they are appealing to me as an actor. But I would never want to inhabit my characters' shoes in real life.

Jennifer Jason Leigh

#49. My philosophy has always been to try to put myself into roles and films that are different. That intensified after 'Lord of the Rings' because it was so massive, but it's something I've always believed in, wanting to change people's perceptions and challenge myself as an actor.

Elijah Wood

#50. I got the O.B.E because I represent England outside of England more ... but thinking of me as an actor, I haven't done all the classical theatre, all the great roles. Think of Helen Mirren and me. Helen, who I adore, is a friend - should be Dame. I am the rebel, the revolutionary on the side.

Charlotte Rampling

#51. As an actor, those are the roles that you long for. You always want something that's going to kick your last role out of the water and put you off on a new path.

Helen Mirren

#52. It is to TV that I owe my freedom from bondage of the Latin lover roles. Television came along and gave me parts to chew on. It gave me wings as an actor.

Ricardo Montalban

#53. I feel that in order to truly be an actor, you have to differentiate yourself and your roles.

Michelle Trachtenberg

#54. I stay away from the elf roles; I stay away from playing a leprechaun. All the roles I try to do are something that an average actor would do.

Verne Troyer

#55. I feel so comfortable in an acting role, you know, as an actor. Maybe it's because I came into it late. If anything, I've felt frustrated that I can't carry a film because everything since 'District 9' has been supporting roles.

Sharlto Copley

#56. While I feel that I have a great reservoir to draw from as an actor for lots of different roles, it is difficult because it can be an industry where it's people's jobs to thin-slice you really quickly and try to fit you into a niche in the market.

Matt Bomer

#57. It's my job as an actor to commit to the role and not - through my own inhibitions - run away.

Nicole Kidman

#58. It's really interesting, for an actor, that you can continue to do season after season and not play the same role.

Mark Consuelos

#59. As an actor, I would call it a role where you get to stretch out a bit.

Miranda Otto

#60. The heritage of a British actor revolves around the challenges of playing the classic roles to meet certain levels of success as an actor. In America, the heritage of an actor is based on cinema mainly.

Brian Cox

#61. When you read a book, it's like you're becoming an actor, taking on the roles of a dozen different people, coming to know and love them like you know yourself. It's one of the best ways to experience another life, to become something that you are not.

Brandon Sanderson

#62. That transition from child to adult actor is so incredibly elusive. The roles that were coming to me as a young adult were not that great, but I was taking them anyway to pay the rent. And the more bad roles in bad movies I took, the less anybody wanted me for a good role in a good movie.

Jackie Earle Haley

#63. I read the script, and I knew it was a good part. It was written for a white actor. That's what I'm up against - I have to try to make roles happen for me that aren't written black.

Gregory Hines

#64. Some of the supporting roles that I've done as an actor, I took them because I knew that I would get to watch some of the leading guys in the movies, and also I'd get to work with them.

Thomas Jane

#65. I don't see money or a particular status as an actor as a goal, but I want to do the best work I can in as interesting a range of roles as I can.

Dan Stevens

#66. Obviously, I play a villain in 'Downton Abbey'. As an actor, you want to get a variety of roles, so to be offered the part of Joe, it was perfect.

Rob James-Collier

#67. I'm definitely a fan of sort of dramas, independent sort of social dramas where you play really challenging roles. Every actor wants to play those dark roles and it's definitely true for me and I'd love to kind of challenge myself in any way possible.

Nathalie Emmanuel

#68. An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God - that'd be a boring career. When you take on different roles and become a different person, that's called acting ... It's a challenge.

Robert Loggia

#69. I admire actors that consistently challenge themselves and play a wide range of different roles. Every actor has a reason for being an actor ... it's boring to play the same person over and over again. People like Daniel Day Lewis, who completely transform time and time again, I look up to.

Joe Dempsie

#70. The human being that I strive to be is a great human being, like a loving human being, but as an actor, you take on roles that are not you and that's the fun part for me as far as acting goes. You really get to learn about other human beings and not judge.

Common

#71. If i dont want to be known, i cannot be known.the best actor can divide role from self.the best liar can divide truth from falsity.

Ming-Dao Deng

#72. My husband, who's the greatest actor in the world, can do anything. Look at what he did in The Critic and Oedipus. In every role he gets-he did this in Richard the Third-there's nothing he can't do, nothing. Just nothing.

Vivien Leigh

#73. My dream as an actor growing up was always to challenge myself to different genres, different roles, and it's actually rare that an actor's given that opportunity to do that.

Taylor Lautner

#74. I sort of have open invitations from a lot of people to do TV. But it's very hard for me to do roles in sitcoms and movies because I'm not a great actor, so if the material isn't good, I'm in torment while I do it.

Norm MacDonald

#75. First of all, I would shoot myself if I ever had to play straight-forward characters that really don't have much of a past. Maybe it's just that I'm not a good enough actor to have to embellish, but I like having these really, really rich roles to play.

Drea De Matteo

#76. Look, when people came after me for doing 'Indecent Proposal' or 'Disclosure,' I thought, 'Ridiculous.' These people are trying to limit me as an actor. Are they saying I can't play these roles? Well, I've proved I can.

Demi Moore

#77. There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.

Cuba Gooding Jr.

#78. It's funny, because I've never thought of myself as a Hispanic actor, like in 'American Gangster,' I'm playing an Italian. I've always been fortunate enough to have been allowed to play all these diverse roles.

Yul Vazquez

#79. Usually being a young actor, you've got to go through certain levels of hierarchy, going through bit parts and extra roles and then kind of progressing up the food chain and having the size of your roles grow in that sense.

James Frecheville

#80. There are definitely roles within this industry that are industry-related, but to be a good actor, you really have to want to act first. At the same time, my goal was never to go to Hollywood to make movies. I think if you come here with that attitude, then you've missed a few steps.

Anthony Edwards

#81. In my first few years as an actor, I took one terrible TV job after another. But even as I laughed off my awful roles and made fun of myself to friends, my work made me cringe - I dreaded anyone's seeing it. I was crushed that I wasn't doing anything I was proud of.

Emily Mortimer

#82. You're always looking for roles and other creatives who are going to be challenging to you, because you're always a better actor after the experience.

David Oyelowo

#83. The progression of roles you take strings together a portrait of an actor, but it's a completely random process.

Meryl Streep

#84. I don't have any [favourite role]. I'm just a working actor.

Anthony Hopkins

#85. I'd rather a young black actor read about success as opposed to how tough it was. I get these roles because I can act and that's it. Hopefully that's it.

Idris Elba

#86. Jason [Sudeikis] is a successful actor and comedian, I don't think that he takes comedic roles any less seriously than he does dramatic roles.

Taron Egerton

#87. It's a blessing to be given a variety of roles to what I call an iconic action actor like myself.

Donnie Yen

#88. Our stories come from our lives and from the playwright's pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we create, the artistry of life itself and the quest for peace.

Maya Angelou

#89. Every actor wants to be everybody - play all the roles.

Kyle Chandler

#90. I'm an actor; I want to play roles, not a role.

Ed Westwick

#91. I know an actor who would play one type of part but could never get cast as tough. Once he got cast as tough, as a cop, he only got offered cop roles. It's a funny business in that regard. It's all about perception.

Paul Dano

#92. It's really hard to find parts that challenge me as an actor these days. At this point in my career, I feel like I can just sleepwalk through most of my roles and still do a better job than 90 percent of the actors out there.

Zach Braff

#93. I think that there's not much point to being an actor if you're not enjoying it, so I try to be picky about roles I do like to go out for.

Grey Damon

#94. You have to make sure that you find projects that are not too similar and roles that are not too similar, so the challenges are new and you still learn things. I still think I can become a much better actor.

Stellan Skarsgard

#95. Every role is challenging in its own way, but the most challenging roles are the ones that are badly written - then it's completely up to you to come up with something that is interesting to the story and myself as an actor.

Richard Schiff

#96. I've never been turned down for a role because I'm gay. I'm a character actor, and that's probably why. I don't find Hollywood, in my own experience, to be homophobic ... But I do think the straight folks will continue to play the straight roles.

Jane Lynch

#97. So many actors get caught up in their technique, and to be honest, I see it really getting in the way. I see them forcing things. I definitely do my best work when I'm free of that. But I think as an actor, I work really hard in preparing the roles.

Gerard Butler

#98. The whole point about becoming an actor is variety and changing roles.

Richard Wilson

#99. I've dubbed for my roles in Hindi, English, and Italian. Therefore, I'm used to the process. But, dubbing is hard, especially when you are dubbing for a prominent actor.

Kabir Bedi

#100. I've had some interesting roles along the way, but they tend to be cause-driven. They're always about something. There isn't time for character work as an actor because you're fighting the cause or mourning the child or fighting the disease, etc.

Bonnie Bedelia