David Thewlis Quotes

I've been playing the bad guy in the last seven or eight projects I've done. I like it. It's a lot more interesting! Being the good guy gets a little stale after a while, you know?

I played a real nasty little girl but most of the roles I had up until then were very sweet and very nice.

The protagonists that I've played tend to be people who make trouble. Or even if they don't make it, they certainly disrupt things. It's fun to do that in life as well. But I don't think I ever played myself.

I've been lucky to play characters that are really broad.

The best characters to play are the ones who have deep internal conflict.

People come up to me and say, 'You are such a great bad guy.' The fact is that the antagonist in a movie is usually the most fun to play. You can stretch the role and do so much with it.

You know, I think a lot of times what happens when we as actors know we're playing a bad guy is we get into bad guy mode. You know what, man? In real life, bad people do good things too and good people do bad things. So you don't necessarily have to be the stereotypical bad guy to still do bad things.

51st State was one that I loved doing because the character was so out there, and in a way I was sad to leave the character behind. I'm afraid I could never be that cool in real life!

I was playing this role on 'Ugly Betty,' the sweetest, nicest guy. He was a fun character to play, but I was in a Latin soap opera - where are you gonna go with a nice guy in a Latin soap opera?

I don't think you can play a villain with a negative point of view.

I think a lot of actors will tell you that playing a villain can be more fun than playing the straight and narrow good guy.

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.

For me, it's infinitely more interesting to read or watch a character making decisions they think are right, but the audience knows differently, and seeing that disconnect. The only way characters can grow and learn is by making the wrong decisions and then learning from them.

I've spent a lot of my career playing heroes, like Jared in 'The Pretender,' but playing part of a dysfunctional family is more interesting.

I love playing roles where it's not just the good guy or the bad guy.

I like to play people that are real, a real person, and then something that's interesting with that person. I think it's a lot more challenging to do that than something that's extremely fantasy-like.

Bad people doing bad things is not interesting. What I find interesting is good people doing bad things.

In all of us, there is a struggle between the good and the bad. It makes it more palpable and real to play such people as an actor.

I purposefully try to make films in that grey area, where things are morally ambiguous. It's like life: good people do horrible things, and bad people do good things, and there's beauty in horror and horror in beauty.

I like playing a variety of characters. I feel like I've been able to play different kinds of characters - I've done a lot of period pieces - but I've never had to play the same type of character too much.

I always play girls who are quite traumatised, or a plain girl, but I'm happy with that.

I've had some marvelous parts, but I'm also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

It's a great challenge to get to play a real-life character. Every actor would love to get a chance, at least once in his life, to play a real-life character.

There's nothing worse - I don't like listening to actors talk about the process, especially when - I mean, for me I've played a lot of guys, dudes, boys in a sense and this was a challenge for me just to play that official character.