F. Murray Abraham Quotes

Everyone thinks I am exactly like the characters I play.

If someone plays a brooding actor in a film, people think they're brooding all the time.

I do keep getting these bad girl roles. The funny thing is that, honestly, I don't think I'm believable as these aristocratic mean girls. But I do love playing them.

I really enjoyed playing Freddie Cork. People are always scared to approach me because of the character I played in 'Brotherhood.' The writing was very smart.

I play a lot of hard men and gangsters, and I'm not like that at all.

I've always felt that almost every part I've played has been a character part. I mean, I look at it that way. I can't help how I look or how I seem to people.

Mum asks why I am so often cast in adulterous roles. I think it must be because I am fairly flirty.

I didn't really look like a character actor, yet those were the roles I loved to play. If you were a character actor who didn't necessarily look like a character actor, you had to play bad guys.

I once literally had a casting director ask my agent, 'Can she play anything other than a drunk?'

I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There's still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy.

I never get the tall, blonde, glamorous roles because I'm not tall, blonde and glamorous. I'm more the wee, disturbing characters because of the way I look or sound.

Because I was promoted as a sort of a siren and played all those sexy broads, people made the mistake of thinking I was like that off the screen. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Typecasting is an interesting thing because, in a way, if you're good at something, you're going to work at that thing. In other ways, you constantly have to change people's opinion of you as one thing, especially if you want to play different roles. You have to shatter that image sometimes.

A lot of film stars are just playing themselves in different frocks.

I guess it's flattering that everyone believed I was those characters, but it also is dehumanizing.

I don't know what it is about me that gets cast in specific roles. Some people would say, 'You're just a pretty face,' but on 'Battlestar,' I'm not looking pretty every day. I'm pretty banged up.

Once you don't smile on film, they say, 'Let's have that bloke who doesn't smile.'

I have been portrayed by actors in three television documentaries, two plays, one musical and a film. It's no fun watching yourself being traduced and imitated by an actor.

I always seem to get parts where I play the sports professional - and that's not me at all!

Well, I've always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys. So it never surprises me. And if it's good writing, you can find your way into the part well enough.

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

I've never been typed. John Wayne played 'that guy' all the time - mostly because that's all he could do. Gable played Gable parts, and Bob Taylor played Bob Taylor parts, whether he was in armor or a full-dress suit. I resisted that.

I usually do get to play the very sweet, charming roles... but I'm not an obvious kind of villain.

I love the idea that somebody is going to compare me to my character or think that I am like my character when they see me. I feel like that is a role that I am willing to fulfill.

A lot of the time, in the past, I have played the pretty blonde in a lot of roles.