Malcolm McDowell Quotes

Being an actor myself I realize that all actors believe they are qualified to play any role. If you showed me a script with a black woman character I would tell you that I could do it. That is what we do. We act as if we are someone else.

In the work that I normally do, you have a whole script, a whole arc, that you play. And I do believe a good actor will play every bit of information they're given.

As actors, you play people who are not yourselves!

I'm an actor and my job is to interpret.

I really enjoy playing intelligent characters. I'm more interested in that than just emotional kind of Mum characters.

The thing about being an actor is that you're acting. It's not that big of a deal of to play someone different from yourself.

As an actor, one's role is very much to respond and react to the situation within the context of the character and his world.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters.

Well, with each character that I play in my life as an actor, I try to figure out how to find the challenge.

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.

In every film, whether it's a fictional character or not, you create an idea of the character and for me I always do a bad impersonation to start with.

There is a little bit of me infused in every character I play.

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

When you get to set, you don't try to play the plot; you just play the character.

Actors act... Their job is to become this character. And I have, in fact, seen Sam Heughan become Jamie and Caitriona Balfe become Claire right before my eyes. It was an astonishing transformation.

The whole business of being an actor is to explore, from research to shooting to why you do it. You're trying to see why people do what they do and how it feels to do what they do.

I don't see a difference between the idea of what an actor does and what someone supposes a character actor is, really.

If the role is challenging enough, I don't see why I shouldn't play an older man or a father figure. It is not about playing what you are in real life. We are called actors for a reason!

I don't know how to play a character unless I love him.

As an actor, you always have to love who you are playing.

Most actors do that. They fill in the blanks. You don't want to play a cipher.

I need to react to a script, to feel strongly about it in some way. And I need it to be a complex character for sure. And also, I think a lot about what kind of audience there is for the film, what they're looking for and ways to connect with them in the playing of a character.

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

As an actor you become that lighting rod between the person who made the play and the audience.