Top 99 Quotes About Character Actors
#1. I'm a big fan of character actors like Johnny Depp and Gary Oldman. My goal is to continue playing character roles in indie films and move into playing character leads.
Thomas Ian Nicholas
#2. In real life, every person is the leading man or woman. We don't think of ourselves as supporting or character actors.
Wallace Shawn
#3. The excitement for me lies not so much in interviewing the hard-to-get famous person, but the person whom you are about to discover. You know, like maybe the character actors who are just coming into their own and you're realizing how great they are.
Terry Gross
#4. I keep saying that, if Samuel L. Jackson and Bette Davis could have a baby, it would be Taraji P. Henson. To me, she's one of the greatest character actors of our generation, let alone leading ladies. She's just phenomenal in everything she does.
Jussie Smollett
#5. William Hartnell was one of the great unsung character actors of his time
David Bradley
#6. I always change my words in everything I do. I make the language fit, because I know the character from the inside out. Often character actors are not in a position to do that, but I do it. I don't change any cue and I never change anybody else's lines, but I make my own words fit my mouth.
James Cromwell
#7. I love ensemble pieces, I love being a part of the entire tapestry of a piece, but I think character actors do have a lot more fun, and there's a versatility involved that's challenging and fun, to come up to speed and do what's required of you.
Mark Hamill
#8. I like flawed characters very much. A lot of times I get asked to do parts that are kind of small but key - three-scene roles that are three kick-ass scenes. Growing up, watching as many movies as I did, I was always into character actors like that.
Bobby Cannavale
#9. When I think of character actors, I think of Spencer Tracy; I think of Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall. When I was a young lad watching films, my eyes were on them - watching 'On the Waterfront,' my eyes are on Rod Steiger and Karl Malden, not on Brando.
Eddie Marsan
#10. I'm a character actor - always have been, always will be - and historically, character actors don't come into their own until later in their professional and chronological lives.
Annie Potts
#11. You know when you watch old movies, it's always the small parts you remember, the character actors who come in like a breath of fresh air.
Amy Sedaris
#12. William Hartnell was one of the finest character actors of our time, and as a fan, I want to make sure that I do him justice.
David Bradley
#13. I think all actors are supposed to be character actors.
Dennis Farina
#14. It's more acceptable for guys to get old and craggy and become wonderful character actors as they get older, but women aren't allowed to get old and craggy in the same way.
Marion Bailey
#15. I love character actors. If I'm switching channels, and something with Slim Pickens is on, or Walter Brennan, I'm stuck. I have to watch it.
Les Claypool
#16. Well, I've always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys. So it never surprises me. And if it's good writing, you can find your way into the part well enough.
Colm Meaney
#18. Character actors aren't a brand in the same way that high-profile leading men are.
Alfred Molina
#19. I want to play everything. I want to be like Christian Bale: I want to be able to be Batman and then, like, his character in 'The Fighter.' That is what is so impressive about really good actors, that they can be character actors and leading men at the same time.
Ansel Elgort
#21. Racing's very much like the world of acting. You have your front runners and you have guys that are there for the long race, and you have other guys that block for other people, that are called supporting and character actors. It's all the same kind of situation.
Sylvester Stallone
#22. A lot of actors are frustrated because they want to do things that are different and test themselves. Character actors are always looking for something the opposite of what they did.
Jason Statham
#23. I look at leading men because that's ultimately what I'm aspiring to do. But I also look at character actors and people that I'm just in awe by, just because I can relate to it.
Shemar Moore
#24. My influences were Peter Sellers and the great British character actors.
Tracey Ullman
#25. I prefer people to say to me, 'You're one of my favorite actors,' rather than 'You're one of my favorite character actors.' It sounds like a slam. At least it sounds that way to me.
William Forsythe
#26. Character actors just pile up the credits because you work on a movie for, like, a few days. It's not like I'm the lead in everything I do - far from it. I'm not spending three or four months on a picture; I'm spending three or four weeks. Sometimes three or four days.
Steve Buscemi
#27. As you get older, you suffer fools less easily. That's why there's all those cranky character actors. I'm an exception. I'm a sweetheart.
Willem Dafoe
#28. I think there are probably a handful of real character actors in this business. The rest of us are recycling. So now I'm Sam Malone the editor. I'm Sam Malone the billionaire.
Ted Danson
#29. I did what a lot of character actors do: I did it to get girls.
Kurt Fuller
#30. Like De Niro. He's one of the best character actors we have ever had.
Vincent D'Onofrio
#31. The actors I respect are the real character actors, who are the real chameleon actors that completely change from role to role. I love Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman. They tend to be British, I guess. People who really disappear and transform, I really like that.
Fran Kranz
#32. Character actors are becoming a thing of the past. They're just going by the wayside. They're just cutting through that caliber of acting.
Matthew Lillard
#33. I've just always had a soft spot for character actors.
Les Claypool
#34. I'm a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don't look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once.
Curtis Armstrong
#35. If you're a good actor, then you channel enough of yourself into the character so that you do get that other thing.
Henry Cavill
#36. Like an actor who transforms into the character that they're playing, you can transform into yourself.
Leeza Gibbons
#37. As an actor I'm always interested in dialogue, the way the characters speak to each other. I also enjoy a bit of humor, especially when it's unexpected.
Michael Boatman
#38. It's true I have a hard time with the notion of creating a character. And I feel it's a limit. I'm always really impressed by actors who are able to construct a character, like Johnny Depp.
Louis Garrel
#39. I start with actors that I know personally or I know their work, and there are things about their work or their presence or their own personality that make a character, that exaggerates some qualities and suppresses other qualities. It's always a real collaboration for me.
Jim Jarmusch
#40. There is a shortage of hard R. It was the story and the character. He's never played a character like this and so that was the thing that really won him over. The story itself, on the surface - Patrick and I love actors almost in a geeky kind of way.
Todd Farmer
#41. I guess I'm the perfect young lead actress. I'm not Chloe Sevigny - I'm not really a character actress. Some actors have "character" faces.
Berenice Bejo
#42. I don't like making a film and having the actors in character too much in magazines and on the net and everything else. Because you want to keep something back.
Graham King
#43. When you're an actor, you're very much exposed, but in a strange way you're totally protected behind a character, behind a script, behind a director.
Mathieu Demy
#44. It's weird, not to sound too actor but I think that any time you do a performance, you kind of take a little piece of that character, cause it's a part of you you're using.
Alia Shawkat
#45. Although there was a screenplay, the actors never knew what questions I was going to ask them, and all of my character's voice-over narration and scenes were added after the fact.
Griffin Dunne
#46. Actors want to work. Give them characters they want to play, or a story they want to tell, and hopefully the budget will follow.
Lorene Scafaria
#47. I would compare it to an actor. I drive myself into the character that later on is in the ring.
Wladimir Klitschko
#48. The advice that I usually give to young actors is that if you can create a character for the stage and keep that character fresh for at least 6 months that means you're doing the show eight times a week.
Joe Morton
#49. Taking on an iconic character is difficult, sure, people associate different actors with a character that you're playing, but there's something in rehearsing and developing a new character.
Kathryn Hahn
#50. The film [Close Up] made itself, to a large extent. The characters involved were very real, I wasn't directing the actors so much as being directed by them. So it was a very particular film.
Abbas Kiarostami
#51. I've just never been the kind of actor that things have stayed with. I've never needed to carry a character off stage.
Morgan Freeman
#52. I had to learn the image is not the word, which is a jolt for a literary soul. But it has served me well in terms of understanding plot, in terms of watching actors develop characters.
Rita Mae Brown
#53. The number one reason for the death of young actors' careers is people get so used to seeing them playing that one character that they can't accept them as anyone else.
Denzel Whitaker
#54. I like it when actors depart from the script to find their characters.
Fatih Akin
#55. It's strange to look back over a full season. Our characters have accrued all these memories, but so have we, the actors. And sometimes the character memories and the actor memories bleed into each other.
Josh Radnor
#56. Casting is so important, with any film you do. You have to get actors that you believe will fulfill the promise of the characters that are on the page.
Jerry Bruckheimer
#57. A lot of American actors I work with are in character all day long. You can't talk to them. It's Method and the whole thing.
Norman Jewison
#58. I was able to be distant by portraying another person, another character, if you will, and I found myself not stuttering and not having anxiety attacks when I was portraying another soul, another being, and I found comfort in that. I think many actors do, playing someone other than themselves.
Pam Grier
#59. You have a lot more leeway to be contradictory playing a character than most of the scripts have in them. That's how all actors are. We have so many different sides of ourselves and we're so different, in meeting with different people. The audiences relate more to that and find that more believable.
Joel Kinnaman
#60. We're big fans of the show on BBC, and some of the greatest actors in film and television have done this character, from Basil Rathbone to Nicol Williamson to Michael Caine. (Executive producer) Rob Doherty came in with the pitch last season, it was immediately a show that we gravitated towards.
Nina Tassler
#61. I'm very kinesthetic, and when you're that way, you just feel it in your body. I know that other actors think with the logical part of their brain, but I wear my character inside my body, even when I'm away from the set.
Natassia Malthe
#62. If you're gonna let the character be the story, you better set a tone that allows the actors to do the best work they can do.
Leonardo DiCaprio
#64. Wong Kar Wai is a very intense character, very personable, and I believe in general he does not like and he would not want his actors to show their true looks and their true personality on screen.
Andy Lau
#65. Good actors, especially when they know their character, will come in and either tell you in advance that they have an idea, or in the middle of the rehearsal or the scene they'll let it loose and you go, 'Ah that's great.'
Denis Leary
#66. I don't think that you necessarily need a certain type of background to take on roles. You see actors from very, very privileged backgrounds playing working class characters and vice-versa. I don't think your background limits you as to what you can do.
Daniel Radcliffe
#67. Being an actor is a lot more involved than many people realize; there are hundreds of ways to play any character. Even for a stylized bad guy, there are 4 or 5 different personalities I can play off the top of my head without thinking - better and more experienced actors can do dozens or hundreds.
Conan Stevens
#68. What's fun is watching actors of that calibre bring them to life. It's incredible. Christian Bale spent a day with the character he plays and after my year of being with him I couldn't have generated the same view of him. They have a different way of looking at people, it's fascinating to watch.
Michael Lewis
#69. When I started doing television, I thought that I would change the way that I shot, the way that I blocked, and the technical side of it. You're not going to change your relationship with the actors or how you approach the characters. That wasn't any different.
Len Wiseman
#70. I never actually do rehearsals. That's one of the reasons that I write those bios and if I can meet with the actors I'll meet them or talk to them on the phone. What I want is for them to come on set knowing their lines and knowing who the character is.
John Sayles
#71. I am not one of those actors who dwells on the histrionics and the subtext and future text of the character. I deal with the scenes that I'm doing at that specific time, because if I do that, they play in more of a real way.
John Barrowman
#72. Trust your actors. That's why I work with the same actors time and time again. I encourage them to change the dialogue to achieve one thing: keep the characters honest.
Edward Burns
#73. Some actors - myself included - like to know where your character's going: you like to know what the arc is for the character so that you can plan where you're going to give beats for this, that, and the other and give the audience what they want. But on 'Homeland,' you do the opposite.
Raza Jaffrey
#74. I do feel fortunate in that I am probably allowed more often to be a character actor then most actors are allowed to be, and I don't take that lightly or superficially at all. I mean, I really do appreciate it.
John Travolta
#75. There's always down time when you're an actor, especially a character actor.
John Cariani
#76. I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.
Jim Jarmusch
#77. As an actor I can sort of smell a duff note, that isn't full of that much conviction. My worst thing with directors is when I know more than them about the character.
Matt Smith
#78. I don't like the way some actors, when playing a nasty character, will try to grab hold of something good about them.
Peter Mullan
#79. Acting has helped me understand people, not only because you are acting as a character, but also because you are watching other actors work. That really helps you identify in life when someone is acting, not being true.
Steve Martin
#80. We actually did a lot of takes on this movie [J. Edgar Hoover ]. I never left the set wanting more. That's for sure. I don't know. This was a very difficult character for me and a lot of the other actors here, and at times we went and did 8 or 9 or 10 takes on a single day.
Leonardo DiCaprio
#81. The virtue you would like to have, assume it is already yours, appropriate it, enter into the part and live the character just as the great actor is absorbed in ... the part he plays.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#82. And costume is so important for an actor. It absolutely helps to get into character; it's the closest thing to you, it touches you. Some actors like to go into make-up and then put their clothes on, but I like to dress first; that's my routine.
Gary Oldman
#83. I think a good actor will always know the character better than anybody.
Fede Alvarez
#84. I'm not really a Method actor. I'm always afraid of working with someone who's afraid to [break character] and won't talk to anyone because they're in character.
Kaitlyn Dever
#85. Casting is so important in horror. It's so important to have strong actors to tell a story because, if you don't believe in the character, how can you be scared for them?
Alexandre Aja
#86. The atmosphere and the environment that you get on a Chris Nolan film that he and Emma [Tomson] create is one where you feel very safe and very confident and able to experiment with characters. It's a great place to be as an actor.
Christopher Nolan
#87. You have the massive world that was created by Marvel, and then you have these very intimate actors around you. There was as much character work on this as there would be on a little independent film. So, I felt very fortunate in that sense.
Chris Hemsworth
#88. I grew up being fascinated by accents and dialects. One of the things that interested me were actors that were doing different characters, or sort of more caricatures.
Sharlto Copley
#89. I haven't aged into a character actor. I'm an old leading man.
Stewart Granger
#90. There's a lot of actors that I admire because they can just switch one second into the character. Then, they go back to jokes, and then they're doing something really dramatic. I can't do that. I have to really focus.
Juan Pablo Di Pace
#91. My favorite actors are people who I don't know anything about, and I can project any character onto them.
Matt Bomer
#92. My own personal process with movies is to develop the characters with the actors and, when I've done that properly, you can't imagine anyone else, but that actor, playing that part.
Doug Liman
#93. Elijah can register such subtle emotion on his face that I loved doing close-ups on him. He really brings a superb emotional level to Frodo's scenes and although he is a very instinctive actor, we discussed the character thoroughly.
Peter Jackson
#94. The Russian famous actors involved [into The Darkest Hour], they are very creative and they will create sympathetic characters.
Timur Bekmambetov
#95. You don't write for actors. Actors come for characters you've made up.
William Monahan
#96. When you come onto the set, everything should be focused around your character and you should stay in the pocket, as much as possible. Every actor has their own process. For me, I really need to stay in the pocket.
Vin Diesel
#97. In theater, you are there, you have a character, you have a play, you have a light, you have a set, you have an audience, and you're in control, and every night is different depending on you and the relationship with the other actors. It's as simple as that.
Diego Luna
#98. Russell Crowe is normally an actor who disappears so far into his characters you'd swear his DNA has been altered.
David Edelstein
#99. It's our job as actors to make it look like it's not manufactured. If you have two actors who understand their characters - and therefore what they are trying to portray - then all they need to do is be the characters and there's a chemistry there.
Henry Cavill
#100. I feel like most actors just dig and dig and work and work in whatever way they do to try to do as much as they can to portray a character in the limited time they have to play it, whether it's six months or one month or one week of work, you know.
Katherine Waterston
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