Ian Mckellen Quotes

It's really interesting, for an actor, that you can continue to do season after season and not play the same role.

I'm very fortunate that I get asked to do very different kinds of roles and I realize how much I enjoy that. I enjoy the challenge of transformation. There are actors who play one character, or a certain kind of character, the whole of their lives. I really relish the opportunity to have the challenge to totally transform.

An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God that'd be a boring career.

I love doing roles and movies that are different from each other. That's kind of why I like to be an actor because I get to play different characters and pretend I'm different people going through different situations.

I had no desire to be a star. I wanted to be a character actress and be able to do all kinds of parts and work on a lot of things. That was my unconscious choice. I wanted to be an undercover actress.

I've been really fortunate in the fact that I've gotten a chance to do a real wide range of all different kinds of characters.

I think I've had more of a variety in what I've done than most actors.

I've played a baseball player a few times, but in my career I've been blessed to have played a wide range of characters.

Every actor wants to be everybody - play all the roles.

I wouldn't want to be associated with one character, because I want to be able to do different roles.

Film is an avenue that I really want to explore more. I’ve learned that my personality is quite impulsive and spontaneous, so the idea that I could play a character for six months and then play something else immediately after is really appealing to me.

The cliché about young actors is that they want to diversify the work that they do to show their range, but it's true. Or at least, for me, I want to keep doing different stuff; doing different work, you see different things.

What kind of role do you play after someone like Stringer, you know what I mean? You play another gangster. What’s the point of that? I’ve played the gangster. I try to keep it really varied; it just makes for more of a fun and interesting career.

For me, I've been really, really lucky because I have been able to play a lot of different parts.

I've been very lucky at what's happened in my career to date, but playing something as far from me as possible is an ambition of mine - anything from a mutated baddy in a comic book action thriller, to a detective. If anything, I'd like Gary Oldman's career: he's the perfect example of it. I've love to have a really broad sweep of characters - to be able to do something edgy, surprising and unfashionable.

I don't want to be the funny girl or the serious girl. I would hope to touch on all different genres and all different types of characters, which I think I've been lucky enough to do, so far.

I'm not a massive fan of just playing myself on screen. If you can play lots of different characters, that's fun. As long as the material is good, that's what the attraction is for me.

I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do. I want to skip to work. I don't want to repeat anything. What the future holds, I don't know, but that's what I like. I'll take any risk there is.

I just want to do everything. As broad as that seems, it's kind of the plan. There are so many different genres out there to do, so many different characters to play, so many different amazing actors and directors to work with. I'm just following my gut, and if it's speaking to me, then I'm doing it.

I think a few of my most visible roles are crazy or peppy girls, but I've played a lot of characters who are soldiers, or fighters, or meditative characters, and a lot of this stuff hasn't come out.

I don't have a preference for bad people, no. I have an interest in playing a broad range of characters. Obviously, I'm mostly identified with a character who is very responsible, very solid and very intelligent, but there are plenty of questionable characters in my past career. I'm interested in exploring theatricality and characters with some dimension.

From the time I became an actor my whole approach was to try to do as many different things as possible. It never occurred to me that I might be typecast.

I'm a different actor than you thought I was. Don't put me in a box. I'm not just some kid running around screaming curse words.

I've been very lucky to have had the opportunity to play a diverse cast of characters in the short time I've been a voice actor.

I want to bring something different to every film. I get a bit tired of actors who kind of are the same character in every film that they do.