James Wan Quotes

The industry has a very short memory of what's possible, and they like to typecast you.

If I get too type-cast, that's the worst possible scenario.

It's funny because when I got 'Jarhead' and 'Avatar' and all those movies, 'Leprechaun' still to this day airs on BET. I was thinking, 'Will they just let it go? I finally have a body of work that can speak much better to what I can do than just Leprechaun.'

When it comes to African Americans and African American actors, Hollywood has always felt that if you can make us laugh, that's fine, but we don't need to see you do a 'Schindler's List,' where there's no jokes or music or comedic through-line.

I have a theory that there's almost this primal viewpoint on women in the business, that once you're beyond childbearing age, you are perceived as nonthreatening, nonsexual, noncastable. Sure, I already knew it before I got into it. I just didn't know I'd end up making my living from low-budget, independent films.

I can make a better living as an actor than I can as a director. Though I certainly would prefer to be directing movies.

My objective was to have as varied a selection of roles as possible. It probably did hurt my career.

It was really hard to find another project after my first film.

If I was ambitious in my career, then I would have moved to the United States and given it a good go at films.

I've definitely been typecast, but I have time to do other things and I was glad to have the chances I did.

Years and years ago, when everyone knew that Pierce was going to be doing the job, they started selecting new people. I had this bizarre thing when I hadn't done many movies, and of going on for an interview.

Hollywood likes to put actors in boxes, and it likes to put Asian actors in really small boxes.

A few months after graduation I was working in films. It took off pretty quick.

Is typecasting really a problem?

I've done a few jobs out there for the money, and I find those jobs have come back to haunt me.

I've been very fortunate to be able to jump around. I just did this really wonderful film called Map of the World. That was a real, amazing, dramatic story. Then I did a movie called Company Men, a little comedy about the Bay of Pigs.

I hate to talk about typecasting, because being typecast as Columbo ain't cancer.

I really enjoyed working with Guy Ritchie. One, it gave me a career, and two, they're probably a couple of the best films I've ever done.

Every time you do a movie, it's important for your career, your reputation.

When you get lucky, as I did getting to work on a series of amazing films, one of the drawbacks career-wise is that the image of you at 10 or 12 or whatever is burned into people's minds for a long time.

When I started in the business, you did television, and then when you got lucky, you got a prestige project of a film.

Our Bollywood industry works in such a way that when an actor is seen in a gangster's role, he is offered similar roles.

When I left for Qatar, I knew, of course, that this could have an impact on my career as an international.

If you do a bad role in a film, you may not get television offers in future.

After the release of movies like 'Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy' and 'Amirtham,' I was branded as an actress who can do only homely roles.