Greg Mottola Quotes

I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.

I was born a character actor.

Your basic physical makeup does influence the parts you're offered. If you're big, they cast you either dumb or tough, although there are exceptions. Clint Eastwood and James Arness carved out niches for themselves in Westerns. I just hope I won't be faced with doing 'Li'l Abner' in dinner theater for the rest of my career.

When I first started, they were trying to get me into sitcoms - I think because I had that kind of Wonder Bread look and my hair always went into place. I kept saying, 'I'm not good at sitcoms. I don't know how to do that.'

I'm a character actor, but I look like a leading man.

It's harder in the States. I'm much more inclined to get offered things that are a lot straighter and heavier and dramatic. And they go by looks, too. If you look like a leading man, then that's what they will consider you for.

I had the ability, but I didn't have the name. They could have built me, which is what they did with Deborah Kerr, but I don't think I was quite hot enough in the looks department, quite frankly. I was all talent and no looks.

Iwan Rheon is a great actor, and he's going to go on to a long brilliant career. And most of the characters he'll play will not be evil. He's not one of those who can only play a bad guy.

I wanted to be cast because I'm an actor and not because of how I look or where I'm from. I'm brown. I want to be able to play a Spanish girl some day or a Mexican girl and learn the language. That's what actors do: we act.

In my heart of hearts, I'm a character actress, whereas other people play their one strength.

How long can you bank on your body and your face to help you get roles in films? At the end of the day, anyone who wants to be known as an actor wants to be appreciated for his/her work.

I think that different actors bring different qualities to the character.

Mothers always think their children are prettier than they really are, and mine has always told me I look like Tom Cruise.

I think we spend a lot of time denying our mothers. We understand other women earlier than we understand our mothers because we're trying so hard to say, "I'm not going to be like my mother" that we blame her for her condition. If we didn't blame her for her condition, we would have to admit that it could happen to us, too. I spent a long time doing that, thinking that my mother's problems were uniquely her fault.

If you're not good looking, you're considered a good actor, you know what I mean?

I think audiences are a lot more intelligent than what we give them credit for and understand that an actor is playing a role and that doesn't mean he can't play different types of roles.

Bill Murray I always liked. I'm not as good as him, but there's a quality in him that I like. And then there's DeNiro, I'll never be that.

I guess I'm the perfect young lead actress. I'm not Chloe Sevigny - I'm not really a character actress. Some actors have "character" faces.

Once you do a character in Hollywood and people haven't seen you before, they put you in a box and they think that's all that you can do and it's hard to get people to take a risk on you.

There are so many actors that I've worked with that I'd like to work with again and there are so many girls. So often when you're up for a role, you're the only girl, and people think that a positive thing: "You get to be the only girl here!" That's not an exciting kind of idea to me.

If everyone thinks you're bizarre and creepy, then you play bad guys. If everyone thinks you're beautiful and wants to kiss you, then you play the lead role.

I've been a fan of Mads since the “Casino Royale” movie. I really sat up and paid attention to him. I was like, “Who is this motherf**ker?” Even his work in something as sort of popcorn as “Clash of the Titans,” he brings a kind of danger and reality and he grounds it in such a way that you think, yes, I'm good to work with this guy. I should come back, just stay behind him. (Laughs) Our working relationship has been fantastic.

Brad Pitt seems to have no problem getting parts that he wants, nor does Angelina Jolie. Not that I'm saying I look like either of them, but I just don't think that it has anything to do with that. It's the emotions or characters you are able to take on that will get you work, not necessarily the way you look. Obviously, beauty can open doors - it is Hollywood, after all - but that's not enough.

Actors today go into TV, which I don't consider has a lot to do with acting. They only think of stardom. If you photograph well, that's enough. I have a terrible time distinguishing one from another. Girls wear their hair the same, and are much too anorexic-looking.

I'm aware of the power of looks. I've wanted to play roles that have gone to much better-looking people and you just think 'Oh well, that's the pin up guy's an actor like my friend James Mcavoy, who's gorgeous on screen. I'm not that. But at least I don't have to worry about taking precious care of my face because it's my commodity. That's a great freedom. I'm not afraid of being heinous for the sake of a part