Steven Rodney McQueen Quotes

The whole thing about acting, the draw for me, is the opportunity to do things you don't get to do in real life.

Whether you want to admit it or not, people begin to judge you the minute you walk in the door.

You judge people as you meet them.

A script narration is like watching a film, and I react to it like an audience with my own instinct. After that, I look for what is my character, what will I bring to the table in that role, how challenging will it be.

I think if you're too embroiled in the need to relate too closely to the character, then you start to judge the character for the audience rather than to present it to the audience for their enjoyment and them to mull over the questions that the characters present.

Anita Shreve is an author I adore. I rip through her meaty books and get off on the robust romance immensely - especially if I am feeling less than robust in my real life.

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.

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 don't really think of Odo as a heroic lead, but that's nice if you do.

The analysis of character is the highest human entertainment.

To be completely honest, it's shocking to me that I keep getting the villain roles! I do not see myself as the villain and I know, growing up, I was the opposite of a villain. I would never try to be a villain to anyone - but maybe other people I grew up with feel differently about that.

To be in theater you have to be a kind of psychologist, for you're always trying to understand character and motives.

If you're in a room and can be seen by actors, you need to understand that you can be felt by them.

People label you the way they know you best.

What I've realized is that a film operates both on the intellectual and emotional levels, and if you can find a way to tell a riveting story and draw ideas out of that, it's very powerful.

Whether it's because of how somebody looks or because of what they're wearing, you kind of assess a person in the first five minutes before they even speak.

People are much deeper than stereotypes. That's the first place our minds go. Then you get to know them and you hear their stories, and you say, 'I'd have never guessed.'

Theater is a space where you cross over from everyday life, because there are real people in that moment moving in front of you - you're being invited to believe in a story and cross that bridge.

If people are failing, they look inept. If people are succeeding, they look strong and good and competent. That's the 'halo effect.' Your first impression of a thing sets up your subsequent beliefs. If the company looks inept to you, you may assume everything else they do is inept.

You jot down ideas, memories, whatever, concerning your real life that somehow parallels the character you're playing, and you incorporate that in your scene work.

I think the problem I have is that first impressions are the ones that stick with people. And people's first impressions of me are obviously from the film, from 'Gregory's Girl.'

My job playing Sam Malone was to let the audience in, to love my bar full of people. And that informed my life.

What made me fall in love with acting, which is my life, was watching other people perform. It made me hunger to do that.

The whole film is about people being convinced that they can reduce themselves to their archetypes.

Onstage I'm the one in control - I'm not at the mercy of how an editor chooses to put the scene together later. I can do things onstage that I would never do in real life. It's very freeing.