Owen Wilson Quotes

I think you have to be really lucky to pick the sort of roles you want to do.

When an actor is offered a role, more often than not - maybe 90 percent of the time - you read it and you say, "I'll take it."

I haven't really auditioned much in my career. I've been lucky in terms of the feature work; it's mostly been people that have been fans of mine that have called and said "We have this part, do you want to do it?" That kind of thing. And that's sort of still the way it is right now - I don't really go after features too much.

If you have a great part, you have the opportunity to give a good performance. The greatest actors get the best parts, and the best parts make the greatest actors. There are plenty of people who are as talented, who just never got the part.

For the only time in my career, I came in and met Tony [Richardson] for the part - I did not read, I just met with him - and in the middle of the meeting, he told me that I had the part [in The Hotel New Hampshire]. There was never, "Well, thank you, and we'll have my people call your people." There was none of that kabuki that goes on now endlessly for even the smallest role.

There's not a huge pile of scripts at home. It's what happens to be on the table at that moment with your availability. And then you have no control over when these things come out.

I've just been lucky. I'd like to have more choices, and I'd like to have a leading part.

I was going to move to New York after college and had no interest in pilot season. I'd seen what happened on TV shows because of my dad, and I didn't want to open myself up to that. But 'Pretty Little Liars' had a very early audition, and my agents encouraged me to go even though I didn't think it would be my thing.

I have never struggled for anything in my life because I never thought I will be an actress. Film just walked up to my house with 'Abodh.'

I don't think actors should ever expect to get a role, because the disappointment is too great. You've got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition's an opportunity to have an audience.

I'm never offered any sort of roles. I need to audition in a typically lengthy process to receive roles.

I was thinking of going to college or staying in L.A. to act, and I stayed to give it a chance. I'm glad I did. I've had a lot of wonderful experiences - some horrible ones, but mostly really beautiful ones.

The thing about acting is that it's fairly random. At the end of the day you take what drifts past you or what's given to you.

It wasn't like I ever said, 'I want to be an actor.' I was in the right place at the right time. I went to a local drama group because I found football on the weekends too cold - which is highly ironic because I've had some of the coldest experiences of my life filming 'Game of Thrones.'

I've never gone around looking for roles. It has been my good luck that all the films that I have done, the filmmakers have approached me.

I am constantly visible in TV shows because anybody who is thinking of a role sees me performing on TV and may say, 'Why not him?' That way I am always in the limelight. It's better than running around for good roles. I can't lobby for roles.

Roles came to me. I was very, very lucky in that respect. Great directors, great writers, great producers - they saw something in me that they wanted for their picture or their play or whatever it was, whether it was Edward Albee or whether it was - or Peter Hall, directors. They would come to me, thank God. I was lucky. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

If people offer me decent roles in good films, of course I'll take it. But I just didn't like the actor lifestyle. You end up focusing all your energy on trying to get parts you don't even want.

As agent asked if I wanted to be represented, and I said, "Yeah, sure, I'll give it a shot!" It was never something I had really put that much thought into. But then, Lee Kirk reached out and asked if I was interested, and I read the script of the [Ordinary World] and said, "Absolutely!"

I don't pick the roles. Your agent gets a call for you and you go and they all get together, everybody has fun at the reading, and they say, "There's chemistry here." So that's how it happens.

The thing I always say is that I wasn't going out reaching for roles, I wasn't fighting for roles - people came to me. They always came to me.

It's very rare that you get a part that you actually like. People have a misconception, whether it be because actors lie or because you're reading interviews from giantly, massively famous actors, but you don't just get offered parts, all the time. You actually have to work to get them.

If I came across a role that is completely mainstream and commercial, but it's the right one, I'd jump at the chance.

Auditions are like a gamble. Most likely you won't get the part, but if you don't go, you'll never know if you could've got it.

It's a chain of accidents. When you step into Hollywood, you wind yourself into thousands of chains of accidents. If all of the thousands happen to come out exactly right-and the chance of that figures out to be one in eight million-then you'll be a star.