Christian Bale Quotes

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.

I was always a character actor, basically, that sometimes looks like a leading man.

If you're playing a lead, you're shaping the movie. When you're playing a supporting role, you've got only a moment to make it count.

I work primarily for the camera-it's not something I really talk about a lot, but it's part of the way I am as a movie actor. The camera is my girl, as it were.

There's only so long you can play the silent type standing in the background. 'GoldenEye' was good for that. I was the villain: James Bond was doing all the heavy lifting. I liked that.

I am continuing to do lead roles and that is where I am actually headed, but doing cameos is also a fun experience.

I essay a negative or a positive character depending on whether it's a principle role and how much it drives the movie.

When you watch me on the screen, you should not be able to recognise me. If people say, you're a natural and an organic actor, that's an insult. If you're being yourself all the time on screen, that means you don't know how to act.

Ultimately, cinema is an actor's medium.

In 'Rakht Charitra,' I had equal screen space to that of the lead.

I don't understand when people say character actors. You either have the protagonist or the antagonist and I've played both. It's an actor's role to play a character. Does that mean that main stream heroes and heroines are characterless?

I like being the lead but I like being in an ensemble. There are different challenges and dilemmas with both. If you're carrying a film, there's a certain weight, but there are a lot of scenes to explore the character. When you're in an ensemble, you have to convey the entire character in a limited number of scenes.

The hardest thing to do in movies is be a day-part player. You have to go in, make your mark, and get out. There's a lot of leading actors who are not good for a lot of a movie, and then suddenly they have good moments, and they're like stepping-stones across a particularly feisty stream. They build careers out of that.

Creating a character and living truthfully through her is a whole different ball game. It's all part of the same person but it's a much newer medium for me.

As an actor, you most often play relatively average parts, so to get to play extreme versions of anything, those are the most exciting parts.

I love making movies, and being in any that I can be in. I'd like to be in those giant movies, as the fifth or sixth lead, and have three or four killer scenes. You don't have the responsibility of the entire movie being on you. I like those roles. I'm shooting for the middle.

I don't feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor.

I don't really think there's much difference between a character actor and a leading man besides aesthetics.

I can speak of actors that I love. I love Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, her tenacity. I love Charlize Theron. She's so surprising and so exhilarating, the kinds of projects she takes on. Marion Cotillard as well.

Until Genevieve I had tended towards the more dramatic type of role.

It's my job as a supporting actor - which I usually am - to support the film: to make 1, 2, or 3 on the call sheet look good.

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

There is no such thing as a Bollywood hero or Hollywood hero. All you see on the screen is the lead actor's interpretation of the role that has been conceived by the writer.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.

The nature of an ensemble means when you're a supporting character and not the lead character, you get little tidbits here and there, but you're usually there to provide bits of comic relief and little bits of action or something.