Jonathan Demme Quotes

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

Did Anthony Hopkins really have to be a serial killer to be in 'Silence of the Lambs?,' I don't think so, no. It's called acting, people.

I can be the girl next door, be the sexy girl, be an action girl. As an actor, this is something that people need to see.

There's lots of incredible roles out there that I'd love to tackle, but there's a select group of actors I find myself gravitating towards, like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Sean Penn or Daniel Day-Lewis - real transformational actors.

I'm a character actor and I get lost in these characters, so I think it's only recently that people have begun to connect dots and go, 'Oh, that's the same person that did this, this, this, this and this!' which I take as a compliment. One time somebody called me an illusionist, and that was the nicest thing anyone has ever said.

Good actors, you always know what they're thinking. That's why they're good actors.

I did a little movie called 'Touch of Pink,' where I played a Cary Grant-type guy, which I thought was a lot of fun, and I thought I was moderately successful in my own interpretation of Cary Grant.

In every character that you play... I mean, I don't think I'll ever be the type of actor or performer per se who transforms, you know? Like Claire Danes transforms into Temple Grandin - I'm not gonna do that.

Acting is what I love. I love being the chameleon, and you can't do that if you have just one physical type.

I always wanted to be a character actor. I love watching movies where you don't recognize someone because they're so lost in the part.

I guess I'm just good at playing repressed individuals. I'm lucky because those are often the roles that catch people's eyes.

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

People are confusing me with a good actor when I'm just a good mimic. When someone asks me to play a nun from the fifteenth century, you'll see what I mean.

Any good actor is a character actor.

My dream role would be someone anything that Meryl Streep can do. 'Julia and Julia' - I thought that was beautiful. She just had the essence of her. To truly become someone, invoking emotions like happiness and sadness and everything in between, that's what I want to be able to do.

I always loved Hanks in 'Philadelphia' and 'Forrest Gump' and watching how versatile he was. That shaped my impression of what someone was able to do. Of course, everything De Niro came up with was always something I was taken by.

I can usually play polarizing characters.

I realise that certain actors project their own image onto the screen - those who are the same on as they are off. But I've never had the necessary statistics to be able to do that sort of thing, and so, anyway, I always wanted to be a character actor.

I certainly don't like to play a bad guy. There are no bad people. It's only shades of grey. Also, I am not a great actor who can transform completely into a totally different character for a movie. I am not a trained actor.

I would absolutely love to do something with Viola Davis or Meryl Streep. I just think both of those women fall so deep into their characters that you are no longer looking at the actresses, you are looking at the characters they embraced.

I was blown away watching Michael Keaton act because he was such a maniacal, evil person on set. He takes on a totally different life, and it was so amazing to watch him work.

The modern girl I played in 'Idhu'... came quite naturally to me.

The skill of a gifted actor, their ability to interpret and develop a character and truly bring her or him to life, is one that I admire enormously.

I adore actors/actresses that have range: someone that can transform into a character that is far beyond who they truly are. Charlize Theron and Johnny Depp are amazing at this.

I don't have to sympathize or empathize with a human being in order to be able to portray them. I mean, some of the greatest roles that actors have been able to play haven't been the most endearing on screen.