Shiri Appleby Quotes

I think when you play a role, you always have to be a defense attorney for that character.

You try, as an actor, to wear a mask; you're serving a story.

Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.

If you know exactly what your character knows, it's a drama.

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.

I usually don't find myself reacting to my characters. I just create them ... And let the audience decide whether they're empathetic or scared or compelled to cheer me on.

I care about all the characters I play, and I get quite defensive about them.

Somebody said something really smart: It's like you end up being the defense attorney for your role. Your job is to defend their point of view. You're fighting for what they want. You learn that in acting school - it's Acting 1A: 'What do you want? What's in the way?'

It's very, very important to me, no matter who the person is, to play that person with the utmost degree of truth that I'm able to bring. But playing a character like Jack Sparrow or Willy Wonka, that requires nothing but a degree of responsibility to the intent of the story - responsibility to the film-maker to deliver the goods.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

When you have a book as material as it is, it's a lot easier to create a character because you have so many resources to draw upon when acting.

I get to play characters that kind of shock people and I enjoy doing that. I like characters that have meaning and get people in the heart. I want to be able to get people to cry or make people angry or sad.

I try to get roles that challenge me in what I can do and who I think I can portray. For me, it's about creating characters with really fascinating stories, because that's what I like to watch on TV.

Honestly, as an actor, all I need to know, the way I kind of look at a scene, is like a puzzle. There are certain puzzle pieces that are bigger than others, and all I need to know is if this is going to fit here to make this part of the puzzle work.

When you get to set, you don't try to play the plot; you just play the character.

As an actor, you don't really have a say or a voice in what the conversation of the show is going to be. So, as an actor, I'm just trying to make sense of why the character is making these choices, and somehow, in that way, you can sympathize or root, at least not detest, what this person is doing. That's, at least, my job in telling that story.

I liken every character that I do to a relationship that you're in.

Every time when I start preparing my character for a movie, I always try to make up and create my own background story for the role in order to fill it with life.

I always approach any character I do as being right.

My job is to see the world through the character's eyes.

I really enjoy playing intelligent characters. I'm more interested in that than just emotional kind of Mum characters.

I don't know how to play a character unless I love him.

If I wasn't an actor, I never would have known who Debbie Gallagher was. I never would know how her feelings are or how her emotions are, or her family.

I think actors are very obsessed about looking different and behaving differently, but all people need is just a different film. They don't want a different you; they want a different story.

When you play guest parts, you play your story in a very urgent kind of way.