Chiwetel Ejiofor Quotes

I'm a professional and I'll do anything - a poetry reading, television, cinema, anything that allows me to act.

My dream was to be a working actress that would be working in theater.

I love to read scripts. But I am very happy right now to say that I am a working actor. In this town of Los Angeles, the phrase 'I'm an actor' is overrated. So, I like to say, 'I'm a working actor.'

I think there's a big misconception out there about actors and the choices they have.

I've been just like any other working actor, out there looking for stuff.

I do it because I love acting, I love working, and whether it's radio, television, films, theater, I don't care as long as I can get out there and do it.

I've called myself an actor - I won't say I've been an actor, but I've called myself an actor - since 1989. That's when I moved to Los Angeles.

A lot of people are attracted to the acting profession because they think it's a cheap, easy, free ride. It really isn't.

Once you start getting big roles as an actor, everything pays. So what are you making decisions on? It's about the director or the script or whatever. But before you reach that point, you're taking jobs with, say, a theater company, in spite of the fact that it's not paying your bills.

Normally when people ask me what I do I say I'm an actor, and that's what I always wanted to be and that's the way I approach work even when I'm directing it.

I'm not going to pursue it the way that actors pursue it which means going to all of the auditions and getting a job and all that stuff, because I don't really need to get a job because I have a job as a writer/director. That's how I make my living mostly now. So I don't need to make a living as an actress.

Dustin Hoffman said this one time, that if he hadn't made it as a film star, he would still be happy as a character actor because he was a character actor because of his face from day one, so he would always work in the theater.

I'm an actor, I'm always looking for work. I was born to do that.

I want to keep continuously going through all the pages in the book of being an actor.

I couldn't imagine trying anything else besides acting. But I didn't know that to make it meant I'd be on a movie screen.

By the time 'Suits' had come around, I had been acting for maybe six years. 'Deal or No Deal' - I like to call it my very lucrative waitressing job. Most actors find a way to make a living while they're auditioning, and for me, holding a briefcase was an incredibly lucrative means of being able to pursue what I really wanted to do.

It wasn't until I saw 'The Color Purple' on Broadway when I was 15 that I really solidified acting is what I want to do professionally.

I've been auditioning since I was 20, working as a waiter, getting theater gigs, doing the 'Law and Order's.

As an actor, you're continually riding the waves of whether you're in or out, getting work or not getting work, and Kazan was really a guy who was condemned into not working and looking to go deep into someplace and just live inside his art.

I've been on over 1000 auditions.

As actors, we get used to disappointment. We go on a hundred job interviews a year and get two or three jobs.

I just spent three years on 'The Office.' I made enough money that I can take five weeks out and do a play.

I'm an actress who likes to work as much as possible, so I'm very grateful for all these opportunities.

I never want to give up the stage.

I did as much theater as I could. I worked at a theme park and a Bible theater and a community theater.