Elisabeth Shue Quotes

When I play a villain, I usually get home and sleep straight through the night. It's physically and emotionally draining.

What I love to do requires portraying different characters, and you have to separate your life from the role.

I definitely try my best not to stay in character when I'm not on set, which can be more difficult in some roles than others.

I'm so different to the roles I play, and perhaps that's why they are appealing to me as an actor. But I would never want to inhabit my characters' shoes in real life.

I love doing the nighttime soap, the emotional, psychological, hard stuff that I got to tackle on 'Hannibal.'

To portray a real-life character is the toughest job for an actor because one never knows which direction to flow.

It is a tough job to portray a character and make it believable on screen.

It's much easier, for example, to play a heroin addict and you're withdrawing - you tear the ceiling off - that's much easier than it is to come in and say, 'Hello.' Or, 'I love you'. When you judge it in that way, the heavy isn't as difficult.

The thing about being an actor is that you're acting. It's not that big of a deal of to play someone different from yourself.

Creating a character and living truthfully through her is a whole different ball game. It's all part of the same person but it's a much newer medium for me.

I usually can find a way to do a character to make it real and work. But sometimes it's a struggle sustaining that, because there's such a level of personal involvement and personal, physical, and emotional distraughtness.

I've had some marvelous parts, but I'm also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people.

When you are developing a character you have to bring so much of yourself to the role.

I think when people talk about lighter drama, they tend to use that term, not derogatorily, but 'lighter' means sort of less to a degree, but if you're an actor, light drama is often mistaken for easier drama.

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

To portray a maniac offers a compelling challenge.

I play a lot of hard men and gangsters, and I'm not like that at all.

When I was a young actor... the more different you were from the part you played, the more talent it reflected.

Character acting is a much braver pursuit than a guy who runs around and intermittently clenches his jaw muscles.

It's an actor's job to play all the human conditions - light, dark, and medium.

I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don't take on characteristics which are very alien to me.

My dream role would be someone anything that Meryl Streep can do. 'Julia and Julia' - I thought that was beautiful. She just had the essence of her. To truly become someone, invoking emotions like happiness and sadness and everything in between, that's what I want to be able to do.

You play a part, and as soon as a movie is over and the camera stops, you go home and you're not really responsible for what you've done.

I suppose I've got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable.

I guess every actor has certain emotions they can access easier than others.