Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Quotes

I'm trying to play parts which are a little more out there, but I want variety.

I was trying to find ways of not being pigeon-holed like that. I didn't want to be tied down by my accent. I wanted to play Americans. I don't want to ever be doing the same thing twice, and I just didn't want to repeat myself.

Every role I have in my kitty is different. None of them resemble the roles I have played in my earlier films.

I'm very fortunate that I get asked to do very different kinds of roles and I realize how much I enjoy that. I enjoy the challenge of transformation. There are actors who play one character, or a certain kind of character, the whole of their lives. I really relish the opportunity to have the challenge to totally transform.

If you look at everything I've done, each character is so wildly different from each other, and that's what "The L Word" afforded me the opportunity to do. I want to continue to play characters that are not like me at all, and transform.

I don't see myself as one type of actor. When you get one role, you start to get cast in that role for awhile because that's what people have seen you do, and have hopefully seen you do it successfully. And so, it becomes an easier thing to see you as, for casting directors and directors, and they start to think of you as that particular person or type of character. But, for me, I'm just an actor, first and foremost. The actors I respect are the real character actors, who are the real chameleon actors that completely change from role to role.

I've played different nationalities, and everything from vulnerable to strong to crooked to demented. It just increases your possibilities of work because, if people know you can do just about anything, then you're going to get more offers. That's what I want to do.

I think any actor worth their salt wants to show as much versatility as they possibly can.

I want to constantly be surprising people with different roles.

Every actor wants to be everybody - play all the roles.

Actors do tend to get pigeonholed. People want to know who you are so they can put you in a box. It's lovely to be known for such diametrically opposite roles.

My whole background is character acting: weird costumes, fat suits, playing men, playing animals - I've never played anyone with whom there's any overlapping Venn diagram.

I never felt that I was typecast, but I was concerned about it. I certainly made an effort to take as many parts in theater and film that resisted that. If you only learn how to act a certain kind of role, it is very difficult to grow as an actor.

I wouldn't want to be associated with one character, because I want to be able to do different roles.

Being an actress, I want to play people that are not like me or the characters I've previously played. It's easier to get roles if you play a certain type of character but I don't want to do that.

I have played both serious as well as lighter characters, also, and have been satisfied with both types.

I want to be known as an actor who can do all kinds of roles.

I can be the girl next door, be the sexy girl, be an action girl. As an actor, this is something that people need to see.

I have always tried to portray each role as differently as possible.

I'm not going to play someone too far from who I am. Although I did a movie where I played a killer, and that has yet to come out. But that's someone I love being able to shock people with. I could do something you would not expect me to do. My limitations are - I'm not Meryl Streep. I'm not playing anything in a foreign language, or anything too far from who I am.

I love playing different characters. I just do. I want to play even more quirky and interesting characters and just something that people wouldn't automatically think that I would be. I want to go against the grain a bit and I'm hoping people will be open-minded enough to cast me in stuff that's going against the grain.

I'm character-driven. If it's a great character and something different; because I find that a lot of the times you do get pigeon-holed, you do get the same characters over and over again because that's what producers are comfortable with. They've seen you do it, they know you can do it. I'm kind of getting a little stir crazy.

The cliché about young actors is that they want to diversify the work that they do to show their range, but it's true. Or at least, for me, I want to keep doing different stuff; doing different work, you see different things.

I feel very fortunate for audiences to have been so gracious as to allow me to do pretty much any role that I felt I could do. They let me play a president. They let me play a lawyer. They let me play a hit man. They let me play a father. They let me play Howard Saint.

I like things where I can do a physical transformation, and I love accents and voices, and I'm never going to play the same character twice.