Timothy Hutton Quotes

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

Obviously, I play a villain in 'Downton Abbey'. As an actor, you want to get a variety of roles, so to be offered the part of Joe, it was perfect.

The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.

I hadn't even watched '24' before, and the audition was kind of far away. When I got the material, there wasn't a character yet, so it almost seemed like an assistant to Jack Bauer saying, 'Yes, sir. No, sir.'

One of my favorite experiences in my career, certainly one of the most interesting characters I've ever played, was Simon Lee on 'The Event.' That was a show I was quite proud of and a character I really enjoyed playing. It was one of the most three-dimensional characters that was ever written for me and that I'd ever gotten to play.

'Southland' was really where I learned so much about drama.

And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Playing a real-life character is a challenge and a huge responsibility.

I love acting. Modeling is fun, too, but I feel like there is more room to stretch yourself and open yourself up to new experiences with acting. That's why I got into acting in the first place.

My life also prepared me to play T-Dog. That was what my entire life was about - surviving. To be on the set of 'The Walking Dead,' it was like being back home. I had to survive again, though in the fictional world.

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.

In 'Chhichhore,' I play the most layered and fun character.

Doing a series of 'Facejacker' takes about nine months. It's pretty intense.

Acting always affects every part of your life because it's such a solitary, lonely, and thrilling circumstance that you're taking on someone else's character and that responsibility. It's exhausting.

Chiron is so distant from the person I am; it's important for me to distance myself from that so people can understand that was the character. Hopefully, I'll find another opportunity that allows me to stretch like that again.

My dream is to play ordinary characters. I have no interest in playing a pretty girl or an NRI girl.

If someone comes with an interesting script where the negative role suits me, I will definitely take it up.

A lot of times people say they want a fresh start, but you can't really have a fresh start because it doesn't happen that way.

When I was in college, it was on the recommendation of a friend of mine. He recommended that I take an acting class, and so I kind of did. I was very open to feedback and open to suggestions. I had a little bit of space in my schedule, and I guess, as the story goes, I went into an acting class, and I kind of got the bug for it.

I do tend to find when you're playing characters, often - just for the time you're playing them - there are sides of your personality that get stronger because you draw on them more.

Over the years, I've not had the courage to get into theatre, but after I did my first play, 'The Perfect Husband,' I couldn't wait to be on stage again.

That's where everything starts, as an actor: you've gotta have great writing and great character development, and then you have really great materials to work from.

I think your text [script] is everything; it's what informs you; it's what gives you the given circumstances. Then you take that and you add your own creativity and your own spin on things and you make it personal. That's what makes that character and that text unique to you, when you personalize it. I think that's where your job as an actor comes in.

When you got nothin' / You got nothin' to lose.

There's a rule in acting called, 'Don't play the result.' If you have a character who's going to end up in a certain place, don't play that until you get there. Play each scene and each beat as it comes. And that's what you do in life: You don't play the result.