Helena Bonham Carter Quotes

You have to carry so many archetypes as an actor, especially as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed one.

It has happened with me that I get a role of a cop for a film. Few directors typecast you if you do that particular role well. But, it is the actor who has to decide whether he fits in that role or not.

For most of my career, I've played roles that were written for other actresses.

It's interesting to me that I get cast as mothers and really maternal, sweet, nice people... Maybe I have a vulnerability or something; maybe that's what it is.

I don't exactly set out to only play creepy characters, it's just that a lot of those roles come my way.

I don't pick my roles by genre; that's kind of silly.

I'm hoping I can evade a type and go for roles based on what I consider plausible and what I consider good.

I've always been a material-based actor. That's what I've done, the choices I've made - like a heat-seeking missile.

Throughout my career, I was to be cast as a frontier girl, an aristocrat, an Arabian, a Eurasian, a Polynesian, and a Chinese.

If I read a part and think I can connect to it, that I can touch people with it, I will do it, no matter what its size. And if I think I can't do something with a part, I won't take it.

I don't want to do 'Hamlet.' I don't want to do Robert Redford roles or Mel Gibson roles or Kevin Costner roles, because I'm not going to be good at them.

I think you get the parts that people are comfortable with seeing you play.

My agent knows what I'm looking for. And I'm also looking for a new agent, too, so I'm putting it out there. Again, I'm not going to turn down every role, because there is no bad role, really. It's all what you bring to the role, but that traditional, 'Stand here and open a rope,' I'm not doing it.

I'm very selective about my scripts and about how I am projected on the screen.

I take them both seriously - I don't particularly want to be an 'actor-musician.' I want to play the great challenging parts, to be right for the part, rather than just, 'Oh, he can play the fiddle.'

I don't feel genres have helped me as an actor. Movies can be of any genre. But if you give me slapstick, I may not do it.

I get to pick so many things as an actor. Also, I'm a good observer of people and their mannerisms.

I'm an actor, and I don't judge my parts.

Be it TV, films, or stage, I love substantial roles. The length of the character doesn't matter, but if the character is well thought, then I have to grab it.

I try to explain to people that you get the roles that are right when they're right. If you have a nerd character but you're kind of a cool guy, you're probably not going to get the nerd part. The nerd is going to get the nerd part. You know, someone like me.

I remember that it was never that difficult for me to get a director to look up and pay attention to me. Mind you, I don't know if that's necessarily charm. But I've played roles where my character has to be charming and I've found it quite easy to do. I think some of it is in my bones, but some of it is more deliberate.

As an actor, there are so many different people to hide behind.

Basically, you're selling a world as an actor, right? I mean it's like any sales person: if you believe in your product, you know your product, you sell it a lot better.

When I do the roles, when I'm in the room and auditioning, I'll ask the director if they're cool with me adding stuff, or just improvising while we're doing it. And I would say, like, 90 percent of the time, they say, 'Absolutely.'

Acting is the way I make my living.