Arjun Kapoor Quotes

For me, changing my physical appearance for a character is never a problem. If I have to look a certain way for a role, I just do it.

I was lucky enough to be able to do comedies, dramas, completely different parts. At the beginning, when you start you have a fantasy that you could be somebody else. Which is absurd. That's part of being an actor. It's your voice, it's the way you move, it's your body, even if you transform it, you play with it.

I love playing 'Madame Vastra.' Although I do suffer, spending three-and-a-half hours in make-up every morning to have her lizard skin put on. I was so excited the first day when we did the make-up test, but after six hours, I was like, 'Can we finish now?'

I don't prepare myself for any character unless it is really different.

In 'Begum Jaan,' a lot of people did not recognize me as my look was different. That is the big thing and it means you have gone so much into your character.

When I worked on 'Xena' I had to concentrate on fighting like Lucy Lawless. In 'Kill Bill' I not only had to stop fighting like Lucy, after three years of copying her moves, but start fighting like a Wu Shu martial artist. I'd never done Wu Shu before so mentally it was a massive challenge.

Sexa as a character was fun to play. My mother couldn't even recognise me in the get-up of an older guy. In fact, it surprised me also. It's easily one of the most special characters I have ever played.

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.

It's my chance to challenge myself to the fullest, which is one of the great joys about my job... I love it when a character requires me to look less than my red-carpet best. It's more fun playing a character that requires you to look like dog s - t.

Whenever I switch from one character to another, there's always a few days where I really struggle because I'm changing voices and I'm changing ways of looking at the world. I'm not just flicking a switch; it's harder process than that.

I've always wanted to shave my head for a role because I've wanted to play a character who had a shaved head. I don't know what the fascination is.

In 'Delhi Belly,' I was bald; in other movies I always carried a different look.

I do tend to play characters that have a lot of costume and hair change. I sort of like the change of physicality thing.

There's nothing worse - I don't like listening to actors talk about the process, especially when - I mean, for me I've played a lot of guys, dudes, boys in a sense and this was a challenge for me just to play that official character.

In 2004, I was on the West End stage in The Woman In White, and for every show I had to climb into a fat suit to play the obese Count Fosco. It was hard work, and unbearably hot, but I sailed through because I'd always kept myself fit.

That was the fun of acting, being a blank canvas you could transform into the character - Indian princess, 20s vamp, Mother Courage, Oxford don, 94-year-old wife.

I still think of myself as a stage actor. When I do film and television I try to implement what I was taught to do in theatre, to try to stretch into characters that are far from myself.

There is always pressure playing a real living person and even pressure developing a character from scratch.

When I portray Stabler, I have to shave every day and cut my hair every week! And then, I really like to change my looks for films like 'Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle' where I have the pleasure of playing the ugliest man in the world.

When I played Tonto in 'The Lone Ranger' and was playing the older Tonto, I would just leave the makeup on and go to sleep because it was a four or five hour job; it was, from the waist up, all over me.

For me and for I'm sure any actor, each role is a different challenge to prepare for in a different way.

As an actor, particularly because I'm - I would call myself a character actor. I change my look, my physical appearance and my body, my hair color, my whatever all the time for a role.

Suffice it to say, every actor works differently. Laurence Olivier would put on his costume and when the wardrobe was right, he was in character. That sounds superficial, but it's true, and look at the results.

I love it when a character requires me to look less than my red-carpet best.

I once did a role which I couldn't rehearse in my street clothes, I had to have the character's costume on before I could rehearse it. I just couldn't think as the character unless I looked like him, or I knew that I looked like him.