James Denton Quotes

The character is close to me, except that I haven't lived through those situations, so it's not completely me.

In my acting, I have tried to do this - to present to audiences a living creature in whom they can recognise themselves or someone they know.

I think it's always easier to play parts that you have something concrete that you can relate to.

I prefer to do roles that I can relate to.

Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to.

Everybody has parts of themselves that they're not 100% happy with - that's what makes you human. And being an actor, your job is to play human beings. Your job is to play real people.

Anytime you take on a character... you just have to find the parts of the character that you can understand.

For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.

I think Americans like the practical; they like the human. And I like both those things myself, and I try and put them into my books.

You've got to love the villain if you have to play him. You've got to find something that you can live with in yourself if you're going to play the villain in a play on stage.

Hopefully, any character I play has an anchor in reality.

In order to make characters real - no matter what the character is doing - you have to see yourself as capable of having done that.

I feel like people assume if a character is very different than you, that means it's difficult to get into their head or into their skin.

I try to play real people who inspire me through something in their journey.

I just always want to play people. I don't want it to be necessarily that you relate to the character as female or male, but that you relate to them as a person. That's the driving force.

With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.

I've always been interested in films where you can identify with the actors. Where you can be in their shoes and therefore be more involved if they're people that you recognize.

I really do literally put myself into a character's shoes.

All I've ever tried to do is play real people.

I think that talking about the personal specificity, personal details, is how you get the big, big audiences - by talking about your relationships or your personal tragedies. If you reach out with that energy, you'll touch people.

I identify with the regular person, because that is who I am.

To recognize yourself in a character onscreen, and to connect with them, you gotta recognize their flaws; they gotta feel like a real person.

Human beings have a lot of problems identifying themselves with other human beings who don't resemble them exactly. But there's something about drawing that means that anyone can identify to a drawing. I mean, people can identify themselves with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.

And that's what people want to see when they go to the theater. I believe at the end of the day, they want to see themselves - parts of their lives they can recognize. And I feel if I can achieve that, it's pretty spectacular.

I'm not saying that I am all of my characters, but for me to bring a character to life, you've got to be able to find your own truth.