Cleavant Derricks Quotes

I once literally had a casting director ask my agent, 'Can she play anything other than a drunk?'

People know you as an actor, and labels are so comfortable for people. That syndrome is always hard to get past.

I am Damian Lewis, not Daniel Day-Lewis.

I'm beginning to get pigeonholed as the girl who plays the crazies and weirdoes - and that's not the entirety of who I am. Hopefully, the whole point of being in this profession is that you change into anyone you want to be.

I used to play a lot of foreign women in my youth because I was prettier then. I would go for interviews, and directors would look at these sultry, exotic looks, hear this clipped accent and think the two don't go together. So they would give me a foreign accent.

Certainly, when I walk into an audition, a lot of people already know who I am.

In Hollywood, what they last saw you in is what you are. It's hard to break away from that.

Playing a character for four years, in people's minds, that's who you are.

I remember I was up for the role of Jim in 'Huck Finn,' and because I went to Harvard and Yale, they didn't think I would be able to play a slave. I said, 'Oh, please.' I had to go in there and prove to them that I wasn't too intelligent to play a slave.

Everyone thinks I am exactly like the characters I play.

I would really like it if someone knows me more for a character that I've played. If they call out the character's name instead of mine by mistake, it would be lovely.

It's annoying when people confuse you with the character.

I'm not so widely known that I'm going to be pigeonholed.

Typecasting is an interesting thing because, in a way, if you're good at something, you're going to work at that thing. In other ways, you constantly have to change people's opinion of you as one thing, especially if you want to play different roles. You have to shatter that image sometimes.

When a casting agent sees me, he kind of knows what he's getting.

I think part of my reputation has to do with the difficult roles I've played. Actors do tend to get identified with their characters.

I think I've proven with my career that I can play a wide variety of characters. Yet, I still get typecast as the crazy slob guy. That's how it always works.

I've played heavies for years and years and years. I was bald. I came to Hollywood. I did a play about junk. I was a pusher, so I played pushers for years and years and years. I did war movies and things like that.

The only thing that frightens me a little is when I'm called Kevin rather than Fred, but that's how people have known me for so many years. So, I can't really blame them.

You want to be appreciated for all your work as opposed to one performance, but I'll always be 'that bloke from 'Lock, Stock'.' You've got to embrace it.

People only see you as your last role, so it's hard to break out of that.

Before I was known, I would go on stage and pretend I was other people. Once I pretended I was mentally handicapped. It was really wrong. One time I was a bad magician. And one time I pretended I was a Christian comic.

If you do a character that resonates enough, people are always going to see you as that character. It will just be up to me to make choices where I can flex other muscles.

Typecasting is a good thing. It's good to be known for what you do.

I definitely think that typecasting is something that happens all the time.