Richard Madden Quotes

I've had some marvelous parts, but I'm also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people.

I was terrible in my first play. After that experience, I had to face that I wasn't good enough to play with the big boys. I had to go away and learn, so I worked in regional theater for three years. I even understudied at the Kennedy Center.

People say that they like the characters that they believe that I am. But, I don't as much. I like the characters that I believe that I am not. Like my role on 'Law and Order.' That character unnerved people. And I loved every second of it. I want to continue growing as an actress. There are ways that I can reach quicker, or deeper, with acting.

After I found that I had become an actor, slightly to my surprise, I did have some insecurity, and I did take some rather strange acting classes at a place called The Actor's Studio in London. I don't think they did me any good at all.

I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made it.

I get very competitive, mostly in acting though. When I'm going out for a role or something, that's when I really get very territorial about things.

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

There is always pressure playing a real living person and even pressure developing a character from scratch.

I love playing characters, so I'm always telling my agents, 'Don't worry if the character description is something you think I'm not. Let me try to be that person.'

My biggest fantasy as an actor is to be in situations that make me uncomfortable and force me out of my comfort zone.

My education was doing good plays and also stinkers. When you do a stinker, you learn how to act. I like having to audition. It's nice to do rehearsals. But it's with an audience that you get to love it!

Playing Isabella in 'Measure for Measure' pushed me to my limits. Janet Suzman was directing, and she was very hard on me. I went through phases of not liking her at the time, but I loved her for it in the end.

In every character I play, I try to imbibe something. Every film is a learning process for me.

Here's the thing: If you're taking roles that aren't intimidating you, and I think this is a cliche that a lot of actors say, but if it's not intimidating you, then why are you doing it?

I'm not particularly fond of playing villains. I do want to be a working actor, and I've had to look at what was offered to me, what roles I could get, and what I could do with them. Even though I'm not drawn to putting those kinds of darker characters out there, I think it's an interesting challenge.

Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor.

I think being a character actor is exciting in that it allows you to embody completely different things, whether it's through wild accents or a crazy bad guy or a drunken good guy.

I look for characters that offer me opportunities to explore some aspect of the human condition. I think a lot of actors would say that and would look for that. I've been lucky enough to find projects that let me do that.

I'd not really ever expected to play anything like 'Hamlet.' I hadn't seen myself as a natural Hamlet, whatever a natural Hamlet is, and I quickly realised there is no such thing.

I often hear actors say during their interviews: 'I want to play a crazy person, a murderer, or someone who's on edge.' But that question scares me. I mean, of course there are characters I'd like to play, but I can't really say specifically who they are. It's much too hard to play a convincing normal person as it is.

The muscles you flex in theater are muscles that you really need. I must always find a way to get back there. It's irreplaceable.

Sometimes fake laughing is hard once you've done a scene 18 times. I don't want to brag, but I have a reputation for being very, very good at that. It's funny finding what's challenging about acting as you go.

I want to try and do as much as I can as an actor. So far I think I've done pretty well with being a minister's son. And now I know I'm pretty darn good at playing a woman too.

I love it when a character requires me to look less than my red-carpet best.

I needed to do a play. I needed to learn how to act again, in a focused, all-encompassing way, and a really challenging play is a great way to do that.