Steve Erickson Quotes

It's never been important to be a huge star or to have some breakout role. If you're the lead, you get a lot more screen time and you get a lot more chances to develop that character more thoroughly than you would if you do it in a little supporting part.

See, 'A Time to Kill' was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

'Crush' was my first number one on the call sheet.

My father Arun Ahuja was an actor, and he did films as a hero.

With acting, there is a level of anonymity which is conducive to your profession. There are examples of very public people who are on the cover of every celebrity magazine but can't open a film.

If you are the kind of guy who draws in 100 million people to see his film, you've got every right to be paid accordingly, but I qualify as a character actor. I don't put a bum on a seat.

I was the leading star in 1945. I slowed down my pace of acting assignments after I came into direction.

I'm blessed to have cool roles in these big movies.

Nobody paid any attention career-wise to me in America until 'Bronson.' It gave me a calling card and passage into America, where I've always wanted to work.

Isn't that the definition of a star? Someone who can get a film made?

I think there are always actor parts, and then there are movie-star parts, and an actor's always an actor until he does a movie-star part.

But obviously you don't want to just be the guy who comes in and sort of spices up every movie. So yeah, definitely moving into more of a leading man role would be great, but on my own terms.

I didn't have this feeling that I should be a leading actor in the cinema. And I wouldn't want the responsibility of the opening weekend.

Ideally, I'd like to go right back to getting $7 million a picture and being the headliner. That's probably not going to happen.

'The Last Seduction,' 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'While You Were Sleeping' did a lot to get me noticed for bigger roles.

It was director Krishna Reddy who introduced me as a hero. All my films with him have been very successful.

Stars are always bigger. They bring the audience to the theatres. More than that, they do a lot of work in a film, and they are always on top. I am in no way competing with them.

I never thought that a time would come that someone will write a story keeping me in mind, or a producer will invest crores of rupees on a film that I will carry on my shoulders.

It is because of Navketan that I became a movie star.

Once I won the roles in 'Spender' and 'First Knight' it was much easier for everyone, me included, to get their heads around the idea of me being an actor.

I've watched people in these movies like Bradley Cooper in 'Yes Man' become these giant stars themselves.

'Kahaani' gave me popularity and 'Gangs of Wasseypur' stardom.

I opened the door for one of the great stars of today, Mr. Ernie Hudson. I put him in 'Human Tornado.' It was the first film he ever made. I put him in the film and gave him a break.

I think 'Happy Days' was huge and an unexpected high point of my career. I was a newcomer at that time, and I was fortunate to get such a role in the film. 'Paiyya' was another highpoint, as it opened up Kollywood for me.

Especially for people who are unknown, it's easier to get a TV show because you don't have to put a certain amount of people in movie theaters for a box office weekend. It's really difficult to get a great lead role in some big film, if nobody knows you.