Jon M. Chu Quotes

After many of years of getting cast in sweet, angelic roles, I'm finally getting to play closer to my real life as a horrible person.

Sherlock' changed the perception of me. I have these cheekbones and this face that suggest very middle-class or period-drama roles. I want to show everyone there's much more to me than Irene Adler.

After 'Student Of The Year,' when I played that baby-doll, diva character, I knew I would be stereotyped, and I wanted to break that image of me. I loved that role, but I don't want to be attached to one particular genre, so 'Highway' was a blessing in disguise.

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.

A lot of people ask: 'Will you play a psycho to really change your image and prove you can act?' But that's not what I'm about.

I love casting against type and doing things you wouldn't expect, because I think you get more interesting performances that way. Hollywood loves to pigeonhole people, and there's nothing an actor loves more than to do something different.

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'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.

When a dramatic actor does a funny film, people are like, 'Wonderful! I didn't know he was funny!' But when it flips, people can get really thrown by it.

I was happy she got it and I have to sort of - and one of the reasons I did Third Watch is because I wanted to break that thing of just being the pretty girl and play it down and let it be about the work.

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

To go from playing Jack Startz in 'Behind the Candelabra' to playing JFK in the same year, I have now operated at the far ends of my range as an actor.

I feel blessed that I am able to play really dark guys in a business where they usually want you to play the same character over and over. Poor Michael Rapaport will being playing white homeboys till the day he dies. That's not the kind of career I want.

Hollywood will put you in a box, so to speak. Some people will have seen you in 'La Bamba' or another dramatic film and think, 'Okay, that's what Lou does.' But they don't really have an idea of the range or diversity that I can bring to a project.

When I won the Oscar, I made a point of actively going against that and doing adventure films like 'Con Air' and 'Gone in 60 Seconds,' not what would be expected.

I know, it's true. I've played these tortured teenagers. I can't wait to shed that image.

I try to do as many different roles as the system will allow me. That's the benefit of not being in a giant blockbuster where you're the lead and you get typecast in that kind of role. I am able to slip in or out of a lot of different parts.

I think definitely people know me from playing creeps and weirdos, and I'm definitely looking to expand my range.

I'm trying to break the stereotypical role now of the Theo-type character because, in my post-'Cosby' life, as I call it, I don't want to be known as just the kind of guy who can play a Theo Huxtable-type character. I want to be known as being able to do more things, being able to stretch.

For me as an actor, I oftentimes wish producers would take a chance and cast me against type, and they often don't, so when you get a chance, you do it. At least I do.

After doing 'War and Peace,' I suddenly got lots of seductress roles. It's easy to put people into a category after you've seen them in one thing that you feel fits with them. But I'm trying to make a conscious decision to do different things.

It's great to play somebody's wife, but not all the time. There's so many other stories to tell.

When you're in the living room every week for nine years as one character, it's hard for some people to see you as someone else.

I don't want to be stuck to one character. I think that's what can happen when you take on a superhero movie.

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.