Michelle Monaghan Quotes

I got scars from every film I've done, every TV show.

For 'Rangbaaz,' I had put on weight to play the gangster and for '83,' I had to lose all that weight.

I've had to gain weight for roles and ugly myself up for roles. So yeah, I'm game. I'm game for that kind of thing. I'm certainly not too vain in that respect. If it's a great role, I'm willing to do whatever it is that it takes.

I did an episode on the TV show 'Awake,' and I thought, 'Wow, that's really hard.' To do that so fast and to do that, if it's very successful, for nine months out of the year, for a bunch of good years, that's challenging. But, it was interesting. It's a good show. You'd have to have a very good character, I guess.

I did one of the 'Amazing Stories.' That was the first time I got to play a character who was a dumb blonde. I actually channeled Judy Holliday.

I feel that I have grown so much as an actor being on 'Homeland.'

The thing about being an actor is that as we get older, there are more and more characters to explore and, in general, they get more complicated, so you get to bring all your crazy life experience to the table.

Well, for Blow I had to age from 20 to 60, starting out in shape and then later putting on fat pads.

I'm not the kind of actress that goes home with the character. I mean, you're thinking about the work or the next day's scenes, but not staying in character. But as a film goes on, you become more and more fragile, emotionally. And physically too, actually.

I think you just have to take everything that happens on a TV show with a grain of salt. You sign up for a show for six years having zero idea where they're going to go with the character, so you just have to get on the ride of the show and go with wherever they take you.

I lost 30 pounds to play my character in 'The Mexican', but people don't take to skinny mafia men, and I don't feel right when I'm thin.

I have played old ladies since I was 17 years old, and very convincingly. I've always looked funny and was too tall to play the leads and so had to play the grandmothers.

My character on 'Orange is the New Black' is not one that requires being absolutely shredded with 5% body fat. But I wouldn't be opposed to doing that for a role one day.

It's, like, sort of a dream thing for an actor when they're told to gain weight.

As an actor, particularly because I'm - I would call myself a character actor. I change my look, my physical appearance and my body, my hair color, my whatever all the time for a role.

I put on close to 60 pounds for 'Genesis,' an independent movie from New Zealand.

My first professional gig was on a show called 'Nikita,' and I played Al Qaeda No. 2. At that time I had to take those roles because I just wanted to get my foot in the door.

De Niro didn't gain all that weight to play Jake La Motta just to prove he could get fat - every single one of those transformative things is grounded in the character.

I did a film a few years ago where I gained a lot of weight for it. I was happy to do that because it was called for in the script.

For 'Rakht Charitra,' I had to gain and lose weight. I simultaneously shot the film in three languages - Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi.

For 'Baahubali,' I gained eight or nine kilos for the warrior look. But for 'Saaho,' I didn't need look like that.

I really love being a character actor. I have to say I wish it were a little easier. There are still a lot of things that I don't get, like I do wish I had more of my own.

People say that you want to be varied in your career, and I've done so many things and am very appreciative. But, the one thing I've never done and wanted to do was to be a regular on a TV show, where you get 22 weeks of the year to develop and play a character. I've done arcs of five or eight episodes on shows, but I'd like to have a character that's rich enough and deep enough to want to explore and live with for a few years. Playing the same character, but doing different scenes seems very exciting to me.

I wanted to be an actor since I was nine years old.

You have to put your character to rest after x amount of years.