Joan Cusack Quotes

I shouldn't say this, but I always love the sidekicks. I want to do a leading-lady role in a film - absolutely. But I find that a lot of times I get attracted to the sidekick role. They stand out a little more because they're quirkier, they're funnier, they're crazier.

I don't know what I am. I guess you can call me a character actor in the sense that I'll never be an ingenue. You know, that's over. My shot was missed. I take a normal person and make them more of a character. I don't know what that would be called.

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man.

I was always a character actor, basically, that sometimes looks like a leading man.

I try to do different things. My main goal is to choose roles where I won't repeat myself or where I will not be doing the same role over and over. I try to do a villain, the best friend to the lead, and then a lead. I try to vary it up because if I don't, I will get bored.

As an actor, I probably fall into more of the sidekick/best friend/doctor/lawyer category.

I like being the lead but I like being in an ensemble. There are different challenges and dilemmas with both. If you're carrying a film, there's a certain weight, but there are a lot of scenes to explore the character. When you're in an ensemble, you have to convey the entire character in a limited number of scenes.

There are so many huge roles in the theatre: if you've got the option to play Hedda Gabler on stage, why wouldn't you choose that over a three-line part in a Hollywood film as somebody's maid or somebody's wife or somebody's best friend?

As a black actress, all I was offered in British film was the best friend role, whereas in TV I was offered a whole spectrum of parts.

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

I hope to land roles where my presence is carried on throughout the film. I'm looking forward to taking on a role with a complicated backstory and yet someone who refuses to lose sight of hope. I know that it will happen someday.

I think I'm a character actress at heart, and I think my work is character work for the most part. I'm not the lead of any films - which is not to say that I wouldn't ever want to be; it is just to say that hasn't been my path.

I don't think I was fully satisfied acting. You know, the girlfriend role or the best friend role, and that wasn't enough for me.

I was always the leading man's best friend's best friend.

I'm quite lucky in that at certain angles I look all right, and at others I don't look so good, which enables me to play some leading roles and some stranger, more 'character'-type parts. I wouldn't say I'm the conventional handsome Hollywood leading man.

My definition of a character actor is - they never get the girl.

Well, I've always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys.

I consider myself absolutely a character actor, and that's what I want as a career. I don't need to be the lead star or any of that, as long as I'm doing stuff that I'm proud of, really.

I'm tired of playing freaking cha-chas, the sassy CIA agent, the best friend homegirl. I'm tired of that!

I've always thought of myself as a character actor, even though I've played some leading-man roles.

'Chasing Amy' was an amazing role, but then after that, I went and did 'Big Daddy' and you're the girlfriend or you're the best friend. I wasn't getting the Nicole Kidman roles.

For years after 'The Last Waltz,' I got all kinds of silly movie offers - or, maybe, not silly, but parts that are not my calling... lots of offers to play some wonderful boyfriend.

I'm a character actress. It doesn't mean I can't do leading roles; I don't think of myself as a leading lady.

I was never an ingenue. I've always just been a character actor. When I was younger, it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough. It was hard, not just for the lack of work, but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you.

I took the role of Rochelle in 'Everybody Hates Chris,' and that was it. I was going to play mother roles all the time. Once you do one mother role, it's always a trickle down effect.