Dina Merrill Quotes

I'm very much looking forward to my 30-40 years of acting, and, as I get older, I'm really looking forward to some of the roles that are out there to play.

I don't have to be a leading man. I can be a character actor. That's really what interests me anyway.

I grew up watching Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Robert de Niro, and Al Pacino and even Robert Duvall and was impressed by their caliber of work.

Like De Niro. He's one of the best character actors we have ever had.

I started off as an actor thinking that I would be this Romeo, this dashing leading man. It turns out that I'm a character actor.

'A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints' was the first real actor-actor part I did, and I hope to do more. Action movies are fun, but I'd be happy not to do them if there are better roles.

I'd like to act in Punjabi films and do some great roles instead of just dance sequences.

I really, really, really love my job, so it's not like I'm trying to quit wrestling to do movies. They just all seemed like cool things to do. I mean, I'd love to be the bad guy in an action movie because then people would get to see another side of me they don't get to see.

I grew up being obsessed with old Hollywood and loving the history, what's behind the scenes, and what people don't know.

As a writer, I think I'm mainly interested in contemporary themes, so when I create my own stuff, it's inherently that. But as an actor, I would like to do lots of different things. I would love to play someone completely different from myself in a costume drama.

I never thought of myself doing period. When you're in your acting classes, and you think about the kind of roles you want to play, it's always 'modern relationship drama'-type things.

I have a romantic vision of the beautiful delineation between TV and film that existed for so many years. I romanticize the studio system and movie stars as a whole, but obviously that's just anachronistic and probably a non-reality.

I don't really know if I'm writing the kind of roles that Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore would play. Jessica Lange on 'American Horror Story' is a little bit more my cup of tea.

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.

My mom brought me up on old Hollywood. I had been living in Los Angeles, respecting old movies and growing up with people that were icons that I got to speak to.

My idol when I was a kid was Elizabeth Taylor.

I don't really want to repeat myself. For the most part, I always want to be doing something new. But there aren't a lot of gritty roles out there for women, and they are so fun to play, everyone wants them.

Hollywood in the 1930s is an incredible period of history. There are so many amazing stories about the stars and the studios at that time that you can't fit into one film.

I like watching old stuff. I like old Al Pacino movies. 'Serpico.' 'Dog Day Afternoon.'

If I'd been an actor in the 1940s, I would have been in fashion.

Honestly, a lot of the time the character roles are the best roles.

I'm totally devoted to '30s cinema.

I am an extremely greedy actor. I want to do all sorts of roles.

As a character actor, you go out for all different kinds of things.

The actors I admired were Bogart, Cagney, Cooper, Tracy. Great personalities. Real stars.