James Cromwell Quotes

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.

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

For me, personally, I'm a 5'5" leading man. I'm no Brad Pitt or anything.

I call myself a character actor all my life. I've done a certain amount as a leading man, but character actors in my estimation - it's a lost art these days.

I'd like to think that I don't have a stock character that I go to. I'm lucky in that when you get to initiate your own scene, you get to play whoever you want. That's really kind of cool, but all my characters are short. I look on the videotape, and I thought they were taller, but they're all 5'2".

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

I've never thought of myself as a classic leading man. I'm a character actor who happens to play leading roles. Come on, look at me. I'm really Desperate Dan.

I was never really a character actor - I was a leading man who was always cast as a character. I wanted to be Jack Nicholson or Jean Gabin.

The thing is, I've never been a handsome leading-man type, so let's not kid ourselves.

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

I don't even think of myself as particularly good looking, and not at all a typical kind of Hollywood leading man sort of actor.

I never really thought of myself as being an action hero or a leading man or any of that. I'm a character actor.

I'll never be the biggest kind of star; I'll be like Bob Duvall, respected as an actor but a lot of people can't identify the face. I don't have the personality of a big star, or the looks of a Mel Gibson or a Paul Newman, or the style of a George C. Scott.

I don't know if I could ever really be cast in a heartthrob role apart from 'Twilight', which I didn't really know was a heartthrob role. I really don't feel I am one.

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 think if you love someone, you think that they're out of your league, of course. I go for the full package though, you know, like not everything is based on looks. I go for talent and funny.

The first role I ever played I had the lead and it's pretty much stayed that way, though people take great relish in calling me a character actor, which I am. There are a lot of short parts I could play, but I only do them when they are like this ("A Few Good Men"), central to the idea of the movie.

I was born a character actor. I was never really a leading man type.

I don't want to be an actress, because I think that they have to be really pretty, and I'm not.

I think theater has given me the opportunity to show what a character actor I can be.

Yeah, I am a character actor.

I'm not a leading man. I'm a character actor. That's what I want to be.

I think my attitude's different when I'm in the different places. I don't walk around in character. I try not to walk around with the accent, but those little things change you, whether it's your hair, your clothes, your shoes or a different silhouette. People absolutely look at you differently.

I think that my looks through the years have served me well because I was never a great beauty and I was never cast as a great beauty. My looks were not part of my transportation - certainly not in the typical leading lady role - so I never leaned on it and I never really made that a high value.

I guess they have to label someone the sexiest person in the world, and it is always someone who is on telly even if it’s the weatherman. For a couple of years it was me and then it was someone else. It’s nicer being the sexiest man than the most ugly man. I live with it, and I don’t mind it, but I don’t go around with a big smile on my face everyday.