Cuba Gooding Jr. Quotes

In L.A., you constantly go on auditions, and you're usually not what they're looking for - you get used to going back and back to the same show, and nothing happens.

Hmm, limelight... No, I'm not Sienna Miller or Angelina Jolie. I'm very lucky and happy, but I still find it very difficult to get good scripts and good roles. It's really a jungle out there.

When you go out on auditions for big movies, and you're not a big star, you get used to getting close but not getting the part.

The name game is frustrating. Agents will say, They love you, but they're going to offer it to Julia Roberts first.

I was on a well-beaten path of actors - what we all call 'the Law and Order route'. I spent two years of auditioning for everything... and then 'The Wire' came up.

Yeah, I do feel badly sometimes, not for whose coming up and getting roles I'm not right for anymore but the people I compete with, who range from Uma Thurman on up.

It's not like they just open the gate to Hollywood and off you go - you earn your stripes. I worked ferociously hard even just to get an agent.

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'.

I don't get that many scripts. Back in Australia, I've pretty much done my own shows and really no work outside of that. It's only now that I'm starting to read some Hollywood film scripts, and I've read some really great ones.

I did tons of theater in school, and then when I was 16 and got my driver's license, I started driving to Los Angeles, along with my friend Eric Stoltz, who was a year ahead of me and was doing the same thing. So we had the same manager, and we started auditioning for things and doing commercials when we were 16.

I was in San Francisco for 'Trauma' and then got back to town and got situated and started looking at things and passing on things. I think I was around for a month and a half, and there were other projects that were up, but it's all a waiting game. And then, 'The Vampire Diaries' came up, and I was really interested and read for it.

It's not like you do 'SNL' and then get handed movie roles. You work, you audition for stuff and try to get it. I think, a lot of people, it's the goal to be in movies or just to be working in general. But yeah, some of us get lucky and get some movie roles, and it's nice.

When I realized that you can't necessarily be cast in a really great part living in Austin, even when Hollywood comes to town, I got a demo reel together and headed out west.

After high school, I drove out to L.A. with a friend of mine who had just graduated also, and I started auditioning. I got an agent, but it was all 'Saved By the Bell' auditions.

What's monotonous about being an actor and often makes me want to throw in the towel or drive a car off a bridge is the auditioning - the waiting around.

I'm always struck by the kids who turn up in New York and LA, and places in between. Chicago. Wanting to do theater, wanting to do independent film. Wanting to break into television or radio.

I knew I wanted to be an actor, and my mother said, 'Call Aaron Sorkin.' It seemed dubious that I'd make it as an actor by calling Jews I knew, but it worked.

As actors, it's so hard to get your hopes up about anything.

I'd love to be on a TV series someday, but I believe you get the jobs that you're meant to get. If the job that I'm meant to get is another musical or another play or film or TV show, I'm just happy to keep working.

My father is an actor, so he brought me into his agency when I was young. It wasn't something I wanted to do until high school, when I started taking theater and really liked it. Then an agent found me and wanted me to come out to Los Angeles and give it a shot. I gave myself six months, but it only took me like a week to get a job.

I don't care if you've just won an Oscar, you still have to campaign for parts.

I went to my agent and told them, 'I want to be on another Disney show.'

My mom was an actress, so I got with her boutique agency back in 2001 and started booking a few commercials. She's like my co-manager.

I actually got a play from auditioning for something in 'Back Stage' magazine.

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. I lived in Grand Blanc, Michigan for a year and that's when I got involved in acting and took classes there. A manager who saw me at the agency I was at in Michigan wanted me to come out to L.A.