Michael Caine Quotes

That's what acting is about - for me, at least - tackling different personas and characters.

In movies like 'Cape Fear,' I never played verbal characters. Now, as a grown-up, I relish playing people that are not like myself. That's what I enjoy about acting.

As far as playing different characters within the character, I think that's fun. Very rarely, on TV, do you get to do that on such a regular basis.

An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God - that'd be a boring career. When you take on different roles and become a different person, that's called acting... It's a challenge.

I suppose there are actors who are worried about their public image. But I've never had any trouble playing unpleasant characters. It is only a part. Which is why you do it -because you are interested in exploring something you never could or would be.

As an actor, you most often play relatively average parts, so to get to play extreme versions of anything, those are the most exciting parts.

Typecasting is something I have to be careful with, since I play myself on Geek & Sundry so much on my weekly show 'The Flog.' That's why I did 'Dragon Age: Redemption' last year, so I could do something a little more dramatic and hard-edged.

I love playing characters, so I'm always telling my agents, 'Don't worry if the character description is something you think I'm not. Let me try to be that person.'

People say that they like the characters that they believe that I am. But, I don't as much. I like the characters that I believe that I am not. Like my role on 'Law and Order.' That character unnerved people. And I loved every second of it. I want to continue growing as an actress. There are ways that I can reach quicker, or deeper, with acting.

Every time you play a bad girl or guy in a movie, you really come from a place of pain.

I would quite like to do a different accent or play something so different from myself because Olivia, the character I play in this film, is similar to me.

I just play him as myself, I don't ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me.

I've played a lot of really smarmy people in film, and it can be real fun, don't get me wrong. But it can be characters I'm not as excited to explore.

In the process of developing a character, you do, in fact, start to take him on as a personality.

I played a real nasty little girl but most of the roles I had up until then were very sweet and very nice.

I think being a character actor is exciting in that it allows you to embody completely different things, whether it's through wild accents or a crazy bad guy or a drunken good guy.

Over a spell of about three years, I played a series of roles that were, for me, all very different, but most of them came out within a six-month period. They all dealt with a kind of dark territory that in some cases had been mined before in movies.

I often hear actors say during their interviews: 'I want to play a crazy person, a murderer, or someone who's on edge.' But that question scares me. I mean, of course there are characters I'd like to play, but I can't really say specifically who they are. It's much too hard to play a convincing normal person as it is.

One of my favorite experiences in my career, certainly one of the most interesting characters I've ever played, was Simon Lee on 'The Event.' That was a show I was quite proud of and a character I really enjoyed playing. It was one of the most three-dimensional characters that was ever written for me and that I'd ever gotten to play.

Acting is different from stand-up. It gives you this ability to enter into another character, to create another person.

You try, as an actor, to wear a mask; you're serving a story.

Getting in and out of a character takes its own time for me.

I want to play real characters rather than young leads in very plotty things. I want variety.

When you watch films, there are so many different types of characters you want to portray.

Even though the 'Shooter' character on TV is so close to the real-life me, I'm still playing with ways to creatively portray that character.