Joel Edgerton Quotes

The great thing about writing is that you always put yourself in the shoes of the character. If you're doing it right, you can see into the heart of all your characters. Usually, when there's a writing problem, it's because you aren't doing that.

It's the same as any role and I find that you can't lump characters together; because they all have different life experiences, different reasons for being the way they are.

It's hard to know exactly how people develop the characters they do. There could be people from humble beginnings that turn into jerks. Some characteristics are just part of that special soul of that human being.

After 'Prom Night' I did two movies where I was playing a prostitute. I gravitate towards characters that have some sort of inner turmoil or some sort of character arc. That's the great thing about acting, so many different things and being really diverse in your choices.

You've got to understand what makes the character human.

Human character is just endlessly fascinating, and there is no character who is one thing any more than any one person is just one thing. As you work on a character, he/she is revealed more and more. That's what I continue to love about the work.

It's amazing how people can surprise you.

'Breaking Bad' is great at blurring the line between good and evil. It makes you feel compassion for Walter White so you're with him throughout this descent into the darker parts of his psyche. The bad that we're capable of is all circumstantial.

Describe character using dialogue. Describe character using what the characters see or do or think, but not what they had done or where they had been.

I know myself - I cannot just play a cliche. It has to be a character; it has to be written with the complexity of the human being behind. Could be bad, could be good, could be someone we would hate, but still, I need a reason for that influence, and I need to understand why.

I wanted more in depth ideas about the character and it never came.

I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they're complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated.

The thing I respond to the most is just great writing, interesting characters. I like to think that there is something fun about playing a character that has a lot of authority in her own life.

No person and no character is beyond redemption, ultimately. That's the great thing about playing a character that has kind of a dark side; there's room to explore the opposite.

You can be interested in a Jane Smiley novel whether or not anyone says a word. She enters into her characters' thoughts with great understanding and depth.

I think any character has to be well-rounded, whether they are male or female - they have to be complex and make choices that maybe we don't agree with, you know? I guess that's what makes them human.

The great thing about a short story is that it doesn't have to trawl through someone's whole life; it can come in glancingly from the side.

You have to be careful so you don't make your character dull and predictable. Sometimes you have to bend the script a little... The bad guys are mostly the same on the paper... A bad guy wouldn't think of himself as bad.

When I look at a character, whether he's good or bad, one scene or 10 scenes, I just have to find my way in.

Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself.

I create each character as an individual, coming from a certain place, sounding a certain way, having been introduced to things a certain way.

You can't sit here and try to predict what kind of character I'm going to be drawn to next. At the time when I read 'The Girl on the Train,' it wasn't like I was, 'Ooh, I want to play a hot mess next.'

I think most Americans, when we're building a character, we look at the specificity of what that person is, in particular.

If you can find a way your character moves, you know more about your character than you'd ever dream.

I've never disliked a character I've played. I've always tried to find the humanity and the reasons for what he does.