Asa Butterfield Quotes

I think conflicted characters are always more interesting.

Very few of my characters are totally heroic or totally villainous.

As Faulkner says, all of us have the capacity in us for great good and for great evil, for love but also for hate. I wanted to write those kinds of complex character in a fantasy, and not just have all the good people get together to fight the bad guy.

There have to be moments when you glimpse something decent, something life-affirming even in the most twisted character. That's where the real art lies. See, I always suspect characters who are painted as lovely, decent human beings. I would always question where the darkness lies.

That's the Elektra I tried to portray: one that's always in the grey. She is a tortured soul.

I love the character of Jaime Lannister. He's just so complex - a character that we love to hate - but it's a lot more complex than hatred. It starts off, and he seems so arrogant and so smug.

There are always two forces warring against each other within us.

I like devilish, thorny, dirty, mean roles, muck and mire, unbelievably sad, unbelievably happy, burdened. Inner conflict - that's where drama is.

Nobody's all good or bad, and nobody's all light or dark. Every human being has so many different aspects and facets to them. And there can be something noble and something really dark and dangerous going on in a person all at the same time.

Good guy' or 'bad guy', hero or anti hero; doesn't matter to me, what role I play, only the character have something magical.

I think I'm drawn to characters with complexity or who are under duress in some way and have some conflict going on.

Clearly, I'm drawn to characters with inner conflicts.

Well, I don't feel that I've played so many bad guys, and I'm rot really drawn to villains per se. I think a lot of people relate to some of my characters' inner struggles.

If you look at my body of work, there's always a dark side to my characters. They've always got a skeleton in the closet; they've always got a subtext.

Sometimes there is more exploration in the character for a villain.

People have their complexities. They have their heroic moments and their villainous moments, too.

I've always been at war with myself, for right or wrong.

All the characters in my films are fighting these problems, needing freedom, trying to find a way to cut themselves loose, but failing to rid themselves of conscience, a sense of sin, the whole bag of tricks.

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

The bad guys are not typical; they are not just bad, they are interesting. They might be good or bad.

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

I think all of us have a hero and a villain in us.

We can bring to characters dark and bright sides that nobody even dreams about.

It's much less interesting as an actor playing someone who's purely good or purely evil.

I like the opportunity to play characters who have these dark sides but make the audience empathize with them. You want them to think there is some kind of sweeter, softer side to it.