Sam Esmail Quotes

A lot of the time, a moral compass is all that separates a hero from being a villain; otherwise, the two are very much the same. Both are generally the richest and most complex characters, and they get to have all the fun. I guess it's those types of roles that I ultimately gravitate towards.

Really a bad guy is more interesting, dramatically, than the good guy.

I find that the most interestingly written parts happen to be the bad guys.

Theatre should be a taxing experience: the greatest achievement of a writer is to produce a character who creates anxiety.

The villain of any story is often the most compelling character.

You don't need to like your protagonists.

If you think about Shakespeare, you remember Richard III and Macbeth before you remember Ferdinand, whose role is just to fall in love and be a bit of a wimp. I love the baddies. More important, though, is making the baddies somehow, weirdly, understood.

I think that characters who are nice all the time and who you sympathize with can get really boring.

Cinema is all about going back from shadow to light and back and forth: cinema is a place of transgression.

It's fun playing the villain now and again; villains are so simple, and you don't have to worry about the audience loving you.

I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling.

I like watching films that have very impelling content, great persuasive language.

Every villain needs her story told.

What I have learned from working on those great shows is what is the DNA that makes them so deeply involving and interesting for an audience over a long period of time. So much has to do with character, complexity, and sophistication.

One of things that drives me nuts is you rarely get bad guys who are written very well.

I think all interesting characters have some kind of a complex.

A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.

A movie is like a person. Either you trust it or you don't.

I love a big, character-rich story with a dark heart, with a compelling mystery or some kind of ticking clock at its center. I want to be lured in by prose, captured by character, and bound by stellar plotting to keep turning the pages.

Here's what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing's unbalanced, there's no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad's not dead and asks him if he's had a good time, it's boring. But if something's unbalanced, it must be returned to order.

I prefer to play the bad guy - it gives you more freedom as an actor.

I have always argued, in a good novel, interesting things happen to interesting people.

Judgments and secrets are what make a good novel.

I like French films, Chabrol in particular. With him, you often get a skewed morality in which you sympathise with the person you shouldn't.

I love more than anything looking at a movie scene by scene and seeing the intention behind it.