Jonathan Rhys Meyers Quotes

Occasionally I will audition for a big overseas movie, but that's it.

I wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - 'I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!'

It's 90 percent rejection, being an actor.

I said, going into acting, 'I'm never moving to L.A.,' because it scared me. But there was no way you could build an acting career in Orange County.

Well, I'll keep on auditioning and one day maybe I'll go to LA and try out for films there.

I did tons of theater in school, and then when I was 16 and got my driver's license, I started driving to Los Angeles, along with my friend Eric Stoltz, who was a year ahead of me and was doing the same thing. So we had the same manager, and we started auditioning for things and doing commercials when we were 16.

The tale of the actor struggling to make it is oft-told for a reason.

The last thing you want is to be desperate in Hollywood.

The problem with being an actress is there's a lot of rejection.

Even after I got started in TV and the movies, I didn't sit around waiting on parts. I kept busy.

I'm not really trying to be too much of an actor or anything.

I'm good at cold reading; I've made a living doing this, and most of the time I do audition, but it's very tough. It's a very uncomfortable, awkward process. You never get used to it, really.

I wanted to draw and do costumes. I was prepared to train for that, but I needed something to do on my time off from high school, so I called an agent without telling anyone and started working with her.

Well, the only way I can get a leading-man role is if I write it.

It's not like you do 'SNL' and then get handed movie roles. You work, you audition for stuff and try to get it. I think, a lot of people, it's the goal to be in movies or just to be working in general. But yeah, some of us get lucky and get some movie roles, and it's nice.

As much as I hate auditioning - it's so hard and awkward - it's way better to walk out of that room and win a role because of what you did.

Trying to constantly get yourself into movies is extremely stressful and sometimes just impossible.

I get very competitive, mostly in acting though. When I'm going out for a role or something, that's when I really get very territorial about things.

Once you've gotten the job, there's nothing to it. If you're an actor, you're an actor. Doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is getting to do it.

I try and get out there and audition as much as possible.

It's weird when auditioning for roles, because a lot of my mates go out for the same roles. You don't want to know that you're beating someone to the role.

When I realized that you can't necessarily be cast in a really great part living in Austin, even when Hollywood comes to town, I got a demo reel together and headed out west.

I never wanted to be an actor. I never want to be an actor. I want to be a movie star. The whole idea of having to act is too gruesome. It's too ambitious for me.

Broadway is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

I've always wanted to be a singer and an actor. I will continue to concentrate on both because I love both.