Ron Eldard Quotes

I think there is something in my books that says these are people doing their best under difficult circumstances - sometimes they do wrong things and make mistakes, but who doesn't? And who wants to read about somebody who never does?

No matter how heinous someone's behaviour, if you make them a comic character, you can't expect people to hate them.

I try to find what makes even the worst, most despicable character sympathetic at his or her core.

Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. Even the real monsters have to have a spark of something you can relate to.

Flaws make us all human, and you're rooting for characters because of those flaws. It's ageless if you're interested in relationships and the way people can or can't relate to each other.

You hope that when you're playing someone possibly unsympathetic that you can bring them something redeeming, something people can hang onto.

Your characters can do the worst things on Earth - cut to a happy baby, it ends up being OK.

If you can write someone off as a bad person, then it's easier, but when someone is also great and noble and generous and kind and funny and contradictory, it gets harder.

At the end of the day, what I try to bring to villainous characters is a sense of humanity.

In 'Garden Party' or '40 Days and 40 Nights,' I played characters who people don't necessarily like; I just find some humanity in them.

It is a very delicate job to forgive a man, without lowering him in his own estimation, and yours too.

I feel like life is much greater than a hero or a villain: there's good people that sometimes make mistakes.

In the best stories, people are morally complex; they are flawed. We read them because the world is flawed, and we want to see it truthfully represented. And because it can be thrilling to be shocked and upset, and even to feel, for chilling moments, what it's like to be a bad person.

I am really drawn to damaged characters, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Making those complicated characters empathetic is something to strive for. It's too easy to create a good guy or a good girl.

I really do believe that no one is too pious to fall or too far gone to be redeemed in some way. Jaime Lannister on 'Game of Thrones' did terrible things, and now I feel so bad for him because his sister won't kiss him. Isn't that weird? Does she not love him? He lost a hand! It kills me that I care.

Maybe it's because I'm a little naive, but I do like to think that there aren't really very many truly bad people in the world. I think that everybody has their reasons for what they do, and if you really look through their eyes, you could probably understand them.

I like the opportunity to play characters who have these dark sides but make the audience empathize with them. You want them to think there is some kind of sweeter, softer side to it.

I don't judge my characters.

I love to make even villains people you can relate to. When you find out who did it, I think you almost like the person, which is not easy to do.

There's gotta be a human being in everybody, regardless of what they do or what people think they did.

I think that's an incredible thing that we can do as actors - to feel empathy toward someone that you may otherwise detest, you know?

I'm more comfortable writing traditional protagonists. But 'Steve Jobs' and 'The Social Network' have antiheroes. I like to write antiheroes as if they're making their case to God about why they should be allowed into heaven. I have to find something in that character that is like me and write to that.

'Ida' is about humanity, about guilt and forgiveness. It's not a film that deals with an issue as such. It's more universal.

It is easier to hate an enemy with much good in him than one who is all bad. We cannot hate those we despise.

I just think that we're all humans; we all mess up. It's okay: we should give people room to learn from their mistakes. That's how evolution happens.