Sheryl Lee Quotes

The thing is, I don't just take roles because they're performance capture.

Honestly, I understand that as an actor I should be comfortable with playing different characters. I am also not degrading those actors who are part of stories that require intimate scenes, but as an actress, I wouldn't be doing any scene that requires smooching and making out.

In Hollywood there's no real material. They would send me stuff, but I hadn't even seen the director. If I don't see the director's eyes, I'm not going. I'm not even going to pack my bags.

If I get lucky and I can choose, I would always choose a really good story and screenplay, even if I don't know the director. If there's a good screenplay, there's a chance that something good is going to happen.

I've done a number of things based on real people or true stories or based on books, and I'm a great believer that you have to be true to the script.

I'm a right pain in the hole for my agent. I won't take certain parts if I think they're offensive or banal. For instance, I won't do a film if I think it's full of violence for violence's sake, or a television drama if I don't think it's intelligent writing.

The truth is that filmmaking is not really an actor's medium; it's really a director's medium, so all I can really control is the character that I'm playing. So I try to look for characters that are interesting and engaging and different than what I've done before and hopefully it becomes a good movie.

The moment you say, 'I want to do a role,' the story suffers. I don't set priorities in terms of roles or scripts.

If I read a script and find it engaging and I start making choices in my mind on how to approach the work, than that's a good indication that it is something worth pursuing.

I don't look at scripts in terms of commerciality. I just look at the part, the people involved.

I believe that as a writer and a director, you're only providing the skeleton of a character, and you're hiring actors to fill it out.

For me, it's hard to keep up with trends. I just go for the roles and movies that I feel I could add value to, or contribute to, that I feel I could portray.

My greatest strength as an actor is that I follow my director's brief completely. The film is always the director's visual baby.

I'm a director's actor; I'm a storyteller's actor.

Well, I think certain roles are chosen for us. The moment I read Pete Campbell I thought: I can do this, this is mine. And in Money, too. The truth is I turn down a lot of projects. If a character doesn't have some kind of internal struggle, it's no good for me.

I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.

Of course you want to be good and you want to do the best you can, but I am inspired by great writing. If there's something about the script, that's what I go for, although I know that that doesn't always translate because sometimes it's about the vision of the director.

There was a solid year and a half, perhaps two years, after making 'Temple Grandin,' when I didn't do anything. I just didn't have much patience for roles that were silly, or light, or inconsequential.

There are a lot of times that if a detail in a scene or a beat, feels unnatural, they'll allow me to explore another direction to go until we're all comfortable with what we are doing.

If you think you don't want to play another psychopath, but the script is amazing, and the director is fantastic, and the story is incredible, then you may end up playing your third psychopath in a row.

For me acting is a passion and an art, and always will only be that. I don't have any rules when it comes to acting. I'll do anything. But it depends on the script. Either I'll have passion for the project or I won't. It's got to fuel me.

There have been times - and not just on 'The Newsroom,' but on 'The West Wing,' 'Sports Night,' 'Studio 60'... - where it was hard to look the cast and crew in the eye, when I put a script on the table that I knew just wasn't good enough.

Acting is about going into the space, and there are just some places that I'm not willing to go.

For me, being an actress, my responsibility is not to pay attention to all the noise around me and to pay attention to the script and the director and protect the character and try to tell her story the best I can.

Every movie I've done, it's always the same criteria: finding a great story, and finding a great part to play.