Jessica Chastain Quotes

As an actor, you don't want to play a one-dimensional character.

Any decent actor knows you can't judge the character you're playing.

I don't prepare myself for any character unless it is really different.

I never judge the characters I'm asked to play, and I don't need to feel that they are a part of me.

When I play a part, I never think about likability.

Actors are always looking for ways to build a character.

It's never very useful to see your character as a villain. You have to play them the way they see themselves.

As an actor playing a character, I can't come in with my judgement, or else I can't play it honestly. My judgement has to be reserved for later.

You don't have to kill somebody to play a murderer. You have to read the script and interpret the character.

Any time you get a chance to play a great role, I consider all the qualities I may or may not have attributed to that character and how I would fit into the story.

I think in every character there are aspects of yourself that you bring to it. But then it would be really boring to just play yourself.

When you play a serious role, as far as I'm concerned, I feel I'm using exactly the same skills, whatever they are, to play the role as you do with something more obviously comic. It's slightly different muscles, but the same skill set.

I try to put myself into whatever character I play.

What attracted me to acting, from the start, was playing different characters. I'm not a massive fan of just playing myself on screen.

I've got to tell you, I've played real characters before and people always bring up this word 'impersonation,' and I'm never entirely sure what it means.

I tend to get comfortable with the dialogue and find out who the person is in the script and try to hit that. People are sort of independent of their occupations and their pastimes. You don't play a politician or a fireman or a cowboy - you just play a person.

You can't really judge characters, because that's when it gets really hard to play them.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

On 'Old School,' I was not an actor, I was Snoop Dogg, so I came to the set with a whole different vibe, and a different crew of people. And on 'Starsky and Hutch,' I was more of an actor. I wasn't Snoop Dogg, the rapper.

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

Every once in a while I play a true idiot, and they're really fun to play.

There are always practical decisions to be made about any character you're playing.

When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters.

I'm so into playing different characters, even when I was on Nickelodeon. I just observe.