Willem Dafoe Quotes

I've kind of had to make a career of playing villains. In order to stay employed, I had to figure out how to play bad guys.

People were confused by me, and at first I was auditioning a lot for the crazy characters or the victim, someone who'd been attacked. Which is great, because usually those are the best acting roles.

As an actor, I've been all over the map, but since I've moved to Hollywood, people tend to cast me in these more imposing characters, which is actually really fun for me. I've always been way more attracted to playing that than the hero.

I think it would be amazing to be a character actor and still be a lead now and then in movies.

What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.

I certainly have never been an actor who can play the Everyman guy - or, I don't tend to get those parts. I've tended to play eccentrics. I've played a lot of villains, of course.

I don't exactly set out to only play creepy characters, it's just that a lot of those roles come my way.

I've said maybe too many times that I'd rather be typecast than not cast at all.

All the parts I get offered are character and comedy parts, and I probably wouldn't get them if I had a different face. So I'm glad I have a comedy face.

After that, I was offered lots of lesbian roles, but I didn't want them because I'd already played the best there was.

Being typecast is a great thing for an actor. I was considered one of the New York mob actors.

If you're a 'character actor,' you get hired to play baddies a lot.

I thought, 'Oh, acting is going to be great - I get to play different parts.' And then these auditions started coming up for terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, and I'm going, 'Whoa, what's this about?'

Yes, it is funny that most of the roles that I have played so far have been negative. I have been typecast as a villain.

I'd love to do a character with a wife, a nice little house, a couple of kids, a dog, maybe a bit of singing, and no guns and no killing, but nobody offers me those kind of parts.

'Chasing Amy' was an amazing role, but then after that, I went and did 'Big Daddy' and you're the girlfriend or you're the best friend. I wasn't getting the Nicole Kidman roles.

People always think that because of 'Dr. Quinn' that I just play nice family stuff. But the truth of the matter is that 'East of Eden' was a very successful thing for me in the past. I've played a lot of very evil people in my time.

I keep getting cast as this bad guy, and I don't know why.

I have about as much control over how I look as the guy who's short and looks more like a character actor - we both have the same drive to be actors and we both have the same drive to assume these different characters, it's just harder for me to get the chance because they look at me and say, 'Oh, he's this type,' and they stamp me.

While I feel that I have a great reservoir to draw from as an actor for lots of different roles, it is difficult because it can be an industry where it's people's jobs to thin-slice you really quickly and try to fit you into a niche in the market.

I love making films, but the best roles are hard to come by.

I don't think of myself as a character actress - that's become a phrase which means you've had it.

If I only get to play Malaysian roles, there wouldn't be very many roles for me to play.

Good roles are hard to find no matter what age.

I've had my share of villains and played some fairly nasty characters. But I've been acting for so long. I started out as the girl next door. Now I'm the grandmother next door.