Brendan Gleeson Quotes

It's what actors call a big, juicy part, when you're a leading man. I don't get a lot of those. I get a lot of supporting things.

I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man.

The more complicated the character, the better I am. It's the one-dimensional crap that I had to do for years that drove me crazy.

I have not only played light-hearted roles, but many times, I end up playing this annoying girl in films.

I am done with the cliched heroine roles. I can't go to work without a challenge. I want to do films that drive me, films in which I am a part of the main plot.

In 'The Grandmaster,' I had a supporting role, but my character in 'The Crossing' is much more central to the plot.

I have done so many films in which either I have been the main lead or part of the supporting cast.

I am tired of starring in those films where I am being a part just for the sake of it.

My first mother's role was in 'Aradhana.' But after that in mid to late 1980s, I was being offered more roles of mothers.

For a long time I did not want to do television because I did not want to get stuck playing the same person. I wanted the ongoing challenge of a variety of roles.

I was never the 'babe,' so I knew I'd never get those big roles. I'd always be the best friend or the quirky sidekick.

Even when I'm reading a script where I'm supposed to be looking at the lead role, I'll find myself gravitating toward some small weirdo in a few scenes instead. I'm very instinctive like that and I love the challenge of not having a lot of time to create someone who feels real.

'Deadwood' was just a wonderful opportunity for me. Outside of my own things that I've written, I hadn't had the opportunity to play a character with that amount of depth and range.

I always knew I'd be more of a character actor than a leading man, and I always wanted to take that and run with it.

It's exciting to originate Jessica Jones. There's obviously more freedom in that versus playing a well known character.

I've played a lot of bad guys in my time, especially in movies. It's delightful playing the villain. It's almost the most interesting and most complicated role in a film.

I think the more experience I have working on films, the more I can shed that character rather than carrying around that heavy weight.

For an actor to have the chance to go and play something that's far away from yourself, physically and also in terms of personality, character, is so much fun.

We play many emotions in our careers, emotions that in real life we would perform just once. For example, my character has died in about 10 films, so you have to keep searching for different ways to do it!

I think Ada in 'The Piano' is the most interior character I've ever had the chance to play, either on the stage or in anything I've done for film or TV.

I had been playing really interesting roles before I got great roles. Little ones - 'The Crying Game' I loved working on, and then 'Bird,' 'Ghost Dog,' so many films.

'Cuckoo's Nest' came along, and I was cast, and that was great, but it was my first film, so I felt like I was kind of walking around on the set as Walk-On A.

It's really wonderful to play characters as different from each other as I can.

I am not an actress who only wants to do lead roles.

When I began my journey in films, I never thought I'd be playing the lead in my films and was keen to move ahead with roles that give me scope to act.