Eric Roberts Quotes

I was never a villain on the stage. I always played strong, sympathetic types. My first stage role with a speaking part, believe it or not, was as a priest. It wasn't until I began acting in films that the producers and directors saw me primarily as a bizarre villain.

I am not an actress who only wants to do lead roles.

I've never cared for the character I generally played in films.

I want to do content-driven film, powerful roles which I've never done before.

I play mostly bad guys on TV and mostly good guys in movies.

I hope to land roles where my presence is carried on throughout the film. I'm looking forward to taking on a role with a complicated backstory and yet someone who refuses to lose sight of hope. I know that it will happen someday.

I'm an actor, and I don't look at myself as providing comic relief. I have done diverse and dark roles such as a psycho, murderer, and others in films such as 'Don', 'Eklavya' and '3 Idiots.'

For me, the performance was always playing different people. And so when I got older, was no longer the romantic leading movie star, it became more and more interesting for me, the characters I played, you know?

You might see some of the movies that I'm in where there are shades of drama or whatever, but for the most part, I don't get offered serious roles.

'A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints' was the first real actor-actor part I did, and I hope to do more. Action movies are fun, but I'd be happy not to do them if there are better roles.

I consider myself absolutely a character actor, and that's what I want as a career. I don't need to be the lead star or any of that, as long as I'm doing stuff that I'm proud of, really.

One of my favorite experiences in my career, certainly one of the most interesting characters I've ever played, was Simon Lee on 'The Event.' That was a show I was quite proud of and a character I really enjoyed playing. It was one of the most three-dimensional characters that was ever written for me and that I'd ever gotten to play.

I want to play real characters rather than young leads in very plotty things. I want variety.

I really enjoy playing intelligent characters. I'm more interested in that than just emotional kind of Mum characters.

I am a complete director's actor.

When you watch films, there are so many different types of characters you want to portray.

Mature roles full of substance the kind played by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino - my favourite actors - is what I want to do.

I have always got interesting roles in Malayalam cinema.

As far as films are concerned, I would take up only those roles which are challenging and have some substance in them.

Be it TV, films, or stage, I love substantial roles. The length of the character doesn't matter, but if the character is well thought, then I have to grab it.

My first mother's role was in 'Aradhana.' But after that in mid to late 1980s, I was being offered more roles of mothers.

As an actor, whatever I get the opportunity to do, if it has a good story then I'm in. I thought 'Dead End' had a great story; 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' of course, was probably the first real horror film I was in.

An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God - that'd be a boring career. When you take on different roles and become a different person, that's called acting... It's a challenge.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

If you write interesting roles, you get interesting people to play them. If you write roles that are full of nuance and contradiction and have interesting dialog, actors are drawn to that.