James Roday Quotes

Being in front of the camera was like coming home. The first time I saw myself on the big screen, it was in a trailer for 'The New Guy', and I just started screaming.

My first job was on Broadway. Then I went into the Navy. When I came out of the Navy, I went back to Broadway and a friend of mine, Lauren Bacall, was in Hollywood filming with Humphrey Bogart. She told one of her producers I was great in my play, and he saw it and cast me in 'The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'.

Because I'd only done theater, that's really what I thought most of my life would be. I always figured that movies would be a part of it at some point. I didn't know how or when.

I really only started doing film in '97. I mean, before then, I just pretty much did theater.

Instead of being a theater actor who sometimes does movies I became a movie actor who sometimes does theater.

I came up through the theater. I came out of drama college and started working in the professional theater.

When I was doing theater for all those years in New York, I did a lot of classical theater, wearing big corsets and big dresses and doing dialects. It's interesting that once I moved to TV, I'm playing these scrappy, contemporary toughies.

I'm not sure anybody's ready to see me in a drama. And loving movies so much, I've seen a lot of comics try to make that transition too fast, and it can be detrimental. And I don't think I've had as much success as I need in the comedy genre to open up those opportunities.

You know, when you start, especially with me, I didn't really know I was going to be a movie actress. I thought I was going to do theater.

I had given up the theater and everything propelled me into entertainment. And I didn't resist it.

I started out doing commercials, like Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. And I started to find there was a different life for me, in a different field. From there, I got a call from a director in Italy, and we did 'Indio' I and II, and that's where it started.

I just spent a lot of time on 'ER' for that eight years. I also started working when I was 16, so by the time I left 'ER,' I was 40 years old, I had this incredible experience, my wife had this great company, we had four kids, it was like, 'Let's go to New York and live for a while and make that the priority.'

Every time you go on a set, it's a whole different world, and I love that.

Sure I'm leaving the Bee Gees. I'm going into films.

My plan was I just knew, I think the first time I was in a high school play, and I liked the feeling of that. Getting on the stage and entertaining and audience. Eventually, I went to New York and studied my craft, and I was in school for two years in the same class with Joanne Woodward and Steve McQueen.

I did theater for 15 years, and I spent a lot of time as an understudy.

When I started, I was a theater actress, and there were roles that I couldn't imagine not playing, like Rosalind in 'As You Like It.' I used to think I would die if I could play that. But then I started doing movies, and I had children, and I moved to Los Angeles. And now I kind of can't remember what those roles would be.

Originally, theater was my life. It was what I assumed I'd spend my working life doing - if I was lucky. Then along came movies.

In 2000, I realized I had reached that certain age when the parts get scarcer. So I decided to try my hand at directing.

I'm definitely moving more towards directing now.

When we moved to L.A., I started going out for more commercials, and then one day they emailed me a movie script. The first thing I said was, 'No way. I love commercials.'

When I was at drama school I wanted to do classical theatre. It just so happened that I did a film when I came out and I moved that way.

I was playing a relatively high level of hockey, and I thought that's what I wanted to do. But I had my first movie audition, and I was hooked.

I started in theater; I did theater in New York for 14 years before I even thought about doing movies - I never thought about being in a film; it just never occurred to me.

I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the theater the minute I graduated from college having not pursued it! So I went back to school and got a degree in music and began working in musical theater.