Anthony Marra Quotes

In 'Garden Party' or '40 Days and 40 Nights,' I played characters who people don't necessarily like; I just find some humanity in them.

Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. Even the real monsters have to have a spark of something you can relate to.

'Breaking Bad' is great at blurring the line between good and evil. It makes you feel compassion for Walter White so you're with him throughout this descent into the darker parts of his psyche. The bad that we're capable of is all circumstantial.

'Ida' is about humanity, about guilt and forgiveness. It's not a film that deals with an issue as such. It's more universal.

Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested.

In the best stories, people are morally complex; they are flawed. We read them because the world is flawed, and we want to see it truthfully represented. And because it can be thrilling to be shocked and upset, and even to feel, for chilling moments, what it's like to be a bad person.

Men and women should stay apart, till their hearts grow gentle towards one another again.

Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.

If you don't care for the villain, if you don't love him and hate him at the same time, then he's just boring.

I have never played a role in which someone's dark side shouldn't be explored.

I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It's too easy to create a good guy or a good girl.

And all men are ready to pass judgement on the priest as if he was not a being clothed with flesh, or one who inherited a human nature.

What's so wonderful about 'The Walking Dead' is that we're able to explore human nature in its most depraved as well as its most humanitarian in each episode.

I like to put my characters through a lot, so, in 'Talon,' my fans will find familiar themes of bravery and sacrifice, and what it means to be human... even if you're not human.

There's a story in 'Kabu Kabu' called 'Bakasi Man' where I got to explore the mind of a 'bad man.' It was fun.

I like the opportunity to play characters who have these dark sides but make the audience empathize with them. You want them to think there is some kind of sweeter, softer side to it.

I think it's more optimistic about human nature to acknowledge that people are the products of their time but then to see that they have moments of grace and dignity that everybody has.

I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.

Loki in 'Thor' is the most incredible springboard into a sort of excavation of the darker aspects of human nature. So that was thrilling, coming back knowing that I'd built the boat and now I could set sail into choppier waters.

Filmmakers tell stories to explore human nature, which is always a flawed thing.

I try to find what makes even the worst, most despicable character sympathetic at his or her core.

The thing is, when you paint somebody in all of their colors, they're never all bad or all good. Even the worst person has humanity in there somewhere.

I find flawed characters much more interesting than perfect ones and enjoy the challenge of making readers root for them in spite of their unsympathetic path and destructive choices.

I like the movies that embrace the complexity of the human condition.

You can't play a bad person; you can only be a person who does bad things for the right reasons.