Javier Bardem Quotes

I find often in Hollywood there are many people who play themselves really beautifully. And certain parts are not that dissimilar from who you are as a person. And there are other parts where you would like to think that you have nothing in common with those characters, but you probably do have more than you think.

It's never very useful to see your character as a villain. You have to play them the way they see themselves.

I stopped asking a long time ago, "why would you want me to play that?" I'm an actor. That's what I do.

As an actor playing a character, I can't come in with my judgement, or else I can't play it honestly. My judgement has to be reserved for later.

If you judge the character, you cant play it.

I'm an actor, and everything about me - the way I perceive things, the way I have seen the world - has been in relation to characters and how I would want to play something or not play it.

As an actor, you're sort of the court-appointed lawyer for the character.

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

As an actor, the first thing you learn in drama school is you never judge.

I never judge the characters I'm asked to play, and I don't need to feel that they are a part of me.

I play the sort of character who would sell his grandmother for career advancement, something I've come across a lot with actors.

Actors, it's very hard for them to make value judgments when they play characters. It's very dangerous if you start thinking of yourself as a bad guy.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really. And imaginations prosper in different circumstances. And it's being able - I can't tell you how one does, but one tries to read those circumstances correctly.

I'm Irish and very proud of being Irish, but as an actor, your extraction should be secondary, really. You should be able to embody whatever character it is, wherever the character comes from. That's always been important, for me. I'm an actor who's Irish, not an Irish actor.

I'm open to doing any kind of role and any kind of genre as long as it's interesting and as long as I feel it could be a great character to play. I never take into my own personal opinions or my own public image into account when I chose movie roles.

I don't judge my characters, and that's my job not to judge them.

There is never a personal-life connection between my characters and myself. I'm a professional and I can access what I need to access, so there's no bleed-over. I didn't need to believe in aliens to play Mulder. As for my personal life, everything is fantastic right now.

Because as an actor, I really feel you cannot judge a character. You have to totally commit to that character. And for me to totally commit to the character, I have to find those places where I understand the sequence of behavior.

I don't try to intellectualize characters too much. But I always think of the audience. I always make sure that my characters are likeable.

I don't spend a lot of time judging anyone I play. Even if their function in the script is to be the villain, I concentrate on what their perspective of the events is. Not even to justify them.

Actors are the jockeys of literature. Others supply the horses, the plays, and we simply make them run.

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. They may inadvertently do it, but it's because of the script, not the acting.

Actors are responsible to the people we play. I don't label or judge. I just play them as honestly and expressively and creatively as I can.

Sometimes I am kind of the opposite of my character. But that's the thing about acting, you get to play people who are not like you at all.

I relate to those characters - and any character I play - in as much as I put myself in their positions and feel how I would personally deal with their experiences.