Paul Darrow Quotes

I think every character that I play has a certain sort of tone or an energy level to them.

I always work with the tempo of the energy of the character, whether he's fast or slow, or heavy or light.

As an actor you get categorized by other people, but it's not like I arrange myself into comedy mode or serious mode. If it's good writing you just have to play it true - if it's funny, it's funny. But obviously you don't want it to be amusing if you're playing Hedda Gabler!

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.

I always enjoy impersonating my characters in the first-person singular.

To me the voice has always been the way to start any character. Once I find that, I'm good to go.

I like to mumble when I act, 'cause I think it's more realistic. For some reason, the impediment has given me the accent of a Mexican gangster.

Any good actor is a character actor.

I've heard of actors like De Niro and Streep who stay in character all day long. And Daniel Day-Lewis did it for 'My Left Foot.' I don't do that myself.

I've always done method acting. I'm a method actor, and I've done that for years. I never did acting and decided to take it seriously because all the parts people want me to do were playing the pretty role. If I want to play someone pretty, I'll play myself.

Other kinds of movie stars, it's a different thing, they bring their persona to the part and that's what people like to see, and they are not really transforming in terms of their character.

As an actor, you are always someone else's tool. You can have a connection with them, and you can share their point of view, but ultimately, you are helping them reflect.

If you're playing a character who says whatever he wants, I felt free to say whatever I wanted on set.

The voice is always the starting place for me with a character.

As an actor, you can have your opinions, but our responsibility is telling the point of view of this one character.

I could not be one of those actors who stays in character all day long. I'd go mad.

Voices have always been my way into a character. I usually approach the voice first.

I realise that certain actors project their own image onto the screen - those who are the same on as they are off. But I've never had the necessary statistics to be able to do that sort of thing, and so, anyway, I always wanted to be a character actor.

For better or worse, I don't necessarily categorize myself as a method actor; I'm not going to make claims that I stayed in character 24/7.

When I am dubbing for my character, if I laugh at the figure on the screen, I know I have done well.

The way a character sounds is so important to how you're going to play him.

There is no such thing as playing someone else's character. Every actor takes a character and makes it his/her own while enacting it on screen.

I don't prepare myself for any character unless it is really different.

Because I came to acting quite late, I kind of think one of the few attributes that I do have is that I try to be honest with the character, with the writing. I'm not a tricksy actor; I'm not exactly a scenery-chewing kind of actor.

The only thing that I know how to do as an actor, as a trained actor, is you can't villainize the character you're playing. Whether it's a fictional character or a real character. Because then you operate from that sort of negative point of view, and you can't humanize him.