Tom Hiddleston Quotes

I have never played a role in which someone's dark side shouldn't be explored.

The interesting part of the process is developing the character, you know, why did he become that? Why is the guy a murderer, or why is this guy a pervert, or whatever he is. So that's the fun part for me to delve into the abyss.

For each character, I try to understand what is driving them.

I'm drawn to emotionally damaged characters because there is more to unlock.

The literary story is a story that deals with the complicated human heart with an honest tolerance for the ambiguity in which we live. No good guys, no bad guys, just guys: that is, people bearing up in the crucible of their days and certainly not always - if ever - capable of articulating their condition.

It's not that I'm necessarily looking for things that are so dark and emotional. But if I see something where the character goes through enormous change, it's very appealing to play all those levels, and that is probably going to involve some dark moments.

I'm interested in writing that explores all sides of human beings.

I think the challenge for me in this role is going to be, is there any heart in Negan? For me, I look at that as a challenge as an actor, and that's the kind of thing that I embrace and really look forward to.

'Pumped Up Kicks' is written from the perspective like Truman Capote wrote 'In Cold Blood' or Dostoevsky wrote 'Crime & Punishment.' It's psychologically breaking down someone's state of mind and diving in and walking in their shoes.

I love characters that are going through turmoil. To be honest, I love characters with conflict. I love characters who are really going through an emotional journey; whether it's a super-dark-crazy journey or a really relatable guy.

A novel can grant humanity even to those who act inhumanely, and by making men and women of monsters, it can offer not only a ground-level view of a particular conflict, but a descent into the substratum of human nature capable of the incomprehensible.

I love to start characters in a place where you think you know them. We can make all kinds of assumptions about them and think they have no redeeming qualities, but like everyone, they're complex.

Those things interest me a lot in songwriting - the human nature of how people think, and the muck that we wind up in.

The characters I write about are very internal.

I'm interested in the psychological exploration of human nature, and it just happens to come in the form of film-making.

The bad guys I play don't want to be bad. It's the struggle between the part of them that's an animal and the part that's the intellect that's interesting.

Every time you play a bad girl or guy in a movie, you really come from a place of pain.

I like stories where there's a center that's mushy and complicated.

To me, any character that is conflicted inside as well as outside of themselves is always a better role to play.

The films that I do are deep, introspective, brooding roles that you're in this heavy headspace all the time.

I know myself - I cannot just play a cliche. It has to be a character; it has to be written with the complexity of the human being behind. Could be bad, could be good, could be someone we would hate, but still, I need a reason for that influence, and I need to understand why.

I believe strongly that characters are five-dimensional, and they're complicated, and life is complicated, and people are complicated.

I have not thought too much about the psychology or life of the character Jonas in some time.

I think I am more attracted to characters with a subtext, whatever that is and they don't necessarily have to be virtuous, but they have to at least be human.

The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about.