Michael Socha Quotes

I always get offered the pretty, popular girl roles, but I want to do something dark, really challenge myself and get out of my comfort level.

I was looking to show people I could act. I was looking for something that would take me away from the whole hunk riding off into the sunset thing that people wanted me to play after Brown Sugar.

I try to avoid typecasting by doing different roles.

I've been kinda fascinated by misfits, outcasts, and downtrodden people. I've identified with them. 'Blade Runner' probably got me more work than any. It convinced some producers that I could play something other than a rural crazy, I guess.

I tend to play characters that aren't supposed to black or written black.

My agent Sue realised after 'Cold Feet' that I could have spent the rest of my life doing similar roles. So she was instrumental in moving me away from that.

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.

I do try and stay away from the stereotype and getting typecast.

I had never done any serious acting before, but I decided that it was a chance that I should take.

After many of years of getting cast in sweet, angelic roles, I'm finally getting to play closer to my real life as a horrible person.

I've become so earthy. And I never was earthy. I'm doing all kinds of different roles which are not at all like the intellectual and the legal mind of Ben Stone.

I want to show another side of Middle Easterners. My hope is that I would be able to play a variety of parts, and not always be the guy with the accent.

I want to steer away from the stereotypes that Latina women are categorized in. I feel like there are so many more opportunities for us. I like going out for those roles that says 'open ethnicity.'

What I want to do is play roles as a black man, instead of playing black man's roles. You know?

I need to try and get away from that brat role, or people are going to think I'm a natural brat.

In school I was always being cast as the clown. And then I did 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose,' and once people hear you scream, they can't un-hear it. But I don't mean to say that I've been typecast, either.

In N.Y.C., I auditioned for mostly 'quirky friend' roles. Since casting directors in L.A. lacked a preconceived notion of me, I was able to reinvent my type a bit, which was essential in booking the role of Amanda on 'Ugly Betty.' I don't believe I would have auditioned for that role in N.Y.

I went to America to get away from constantly being cast in costume dramas, playing posh people.

When someone gets closely related to a character they play on TV, it's very hard to break that mold and go on to do something else.

After I left 'Laverne & Shirley,' I got a ton of offers to play the goofy guy next door, and there were a couple of series that I was offered that turned out to be successful series, but it was too close to what I'd done on my series, and I was really glad I didn't take it.

I want to put something on the screen that audiences have never seen black actors do before, roles that will widen views of who African-Americans are.

I did 'Pines,' and everybody wanted me to be the bad boy. Then I did Tony in 'Brooklyn,' and everybody wanted me to be the sweet kid. So I just want to keep everybody on their toes. Basically, that was the thought process.

I used to play a lot of villains. You have to break out of it, and I did.

I would get scripts about 'a young swinging bachelor on the make,' and I said, 'No, I've done that.'

After 'Homeland,' I was offered a lot of very authoritarian, square, angry boss types, but I wanted to do something different. Casting directors are surprised when they look at my CV and see all the work I've done, from Shakespeare to playing Nelson Mandela.