John Ratzenberger Quotes

When I'm in Los Angeles, sometimes I hesitate saying that I'm an actor because people are like, 'Of course you are.' And I'm like 'No,' not, 'Of course I am.' In L.A., being an actor is like a pastime: everybody there is like, 'I was on this reality show; I'm an actor.' It becomes a word that is loosely thrown around.

Nowadays, kids... young actors... they go straight to L.A. before they've even done anything.

I've called myself an actor - I won't say I've been an actor, but I've called myself an actor - since 1989. That's when I moved to Los Angeles.

Even now, when people come up to me and say, 'My kid's an actor. They want to move to L.A. What should they do?' Even if you wanted to help them as much as possible, there's really nothing you can do.

When I moved to Los Angeles to be on the radio, there was an acting school on every corner. You can't be in L.A. and not be into acting.

You know how it is in L.A. You go to restaurants at four in the afternoon, and they're packed because everyone is an actor, and no one is working.

I think, for any actor, L.A. is where it all seems to be.

Living in L.A., I was embarrassed to say that I wanted to be an actor.

I'm not a person who romanticizes what being an actor should be.

If I ran into myself maybe seven years ago and told myself that I was gonna be an actor, that I'd be in L.A. working at Universal Studios with these amazing people, I'd be like, 'Get out of here. There's no possible way.'

The only benefit of my dad being in the film industry was that I got a reality check right from the start. I wasn't delusional and didn't want to be an actor just for the glamour.

I'm so excited, and I feel very lucky, as to be working in L.A. is a bit of a dream come true for any actor. I definitely have to have a few 'pinch myself' moments as I'm driving to work in Hollywood!

I was auditioning a lot in L.A., and I was actually getting called back a lot for sitcoms. But I wasn't getting jobs. I even tested for 'Saturday Night Live' and didn't get that.

I remember we would get young, aspiring actors to come on '77 Sunset Strip' - I remember George Kennedy was one of those - and they would do a big guest star part, a lead, and they'd be paid maybe $850.

When you leave WWE, like, when I left, I was thinking, 'Maybe I'll take, like, a year off, and in that year, I'll probably do a Marvel movie, maybe a couple of movies. I don't know.' And, obviously, completely unrealistic.

It's crazy. I couldn't believe it going from 'EastEnders' to 'X-Men.' I was just looking to leave and get any job, so when I actually got the job, I was in dreamland.

They were looking for someone to play the neighbor of the Jeffersons. I thought it would be a nice trip to Los Angeles. When you get a call like that, you don't expect much to come of it.

In Chicago, I'd audition 3-4 times a week, but when I got out to L.A., there were, like, 4-5 a day, and my skin got really thick.

I moved to L.A. because I didn't want to be in New York anymore. And I knew if I wanted to act, it would have to be in one of those places.

Los Angeles is not going to be a big naive step for me. I know it's tough out there, but I do think there's a place for Irish actors in that market.

It's a tough journey as an actor in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is where I became an actor.

LA is the only place where people know my name and still walk up to me and ask it. And I think that was really representative of a lot of the transplant people in LA. I just found everything so phoney.

People have this impression that once you move to America, that becomes your interest. But I never moved to Los Angeles; I stayed in New York because I do theatre, so my aim is not just Hollywood.

I did a lot of TV work for more than 30 years in New York and L.A., but I would get on the stage whenever I could.