Javier Bardem Quotes

With any role, you're extending yourself and acting out things that never happened to you.

I find it easier to play someone who is so far from me because you create someone - you build this person based on the story and the script, with the director.

Creating a character on or off the stage is an escape.

Directing is more comfortable for me because, as an actor, there's always something inherently false. Because I'm not that person.

I really preferred the characters I could totally create by myself, because I always think of myself as an actor first.

I really wanted to create some of my own characters, then it became wanting to act the parts, then it sort of grew from there because I really enjoyed doing it.

In all my characters, I try to find an iota of myself, and in Castle, I found a lot. He gets away with a lot, so that's fun.

I loved all fantasy, and I always thought that the ideal job as a performer and an entertainer would be to take on a mythical character, you know? Make someone up. Give them a voice, a mannerism, whatever. I always thought that that was the coolest way to do.

I've been doing this since I was 10 years old, inhabiting different people and playing different roles.

Ever since I was younger, I would make table reads at home where I would give fake interviews.

Something that I really enjoy doing is creating and being a part of very different characters and very different projects.

I just love to be able to actually build a character.

I started improvising the Cliff character, based on someone I grew up with.

I was Aladdin, and then I was Captain Von Trapp from 'Sound Of Music' when I was 7 or 8, and then King Arthur. I was always the lead. I've always enjoyed being onstage, acting obnoxious, being someone that wasn't me, hiding behind a character.

What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.

I still love finding the soul of the characters I play and defining who they are. This to me is my paint set, and the colors are always exciting to choose.

I think I've spent so much time playing characters that are so far away from me and learning how to technically build and how to technically put something on top of you.

My approach as an actor has always been the same, in that the greatest gift that you're ever going to have is your imagination because you're not going to have all life experiences. So you draw on things that are sort of close to it but you spend your time expanding on it or drawing something specific on whatever your situation is.

I wanted to be an actor. That was my real goal. But I wasn't any good at it, so I wrote my own material and acted through that. That's my idea of fun. I get to be all these things in the songs.

I feel like when I'm on stage, when I'm writing songs, singing songs, I'm in the studio, I'm shooting videos, I kind of get to become this character, and I can make that whatever I want to make that.

I've been acting my whole life. I have this huge imagination! I'm a dancer and my mom's a dance teacher, and I was always performing and entertaining people. I'd go to see live theatre or a movie, and I'd become the main character for a few days afterwards. I loved being somebody new for a temporary amount of time.

I love to act because I love trying on other people's skin.

Acting and writing go together. Actors write because they love words and becoming other people - we love to escape into other characters.

The interesting thing about acting is using all your own stuff and having some kind of personal catharsis while you're working.

I would like any type of character that I could be creative with and totally delve into.