Cuba Gooding Jr. Quotes

I've always wanted to do a role based on a real-life person.

You're playing a character in a drama who happens to be based on someone who existed. It's never going to 'be' that person, but it's based on someone well-known, and you want to create enough of that person for it not to be a distraction.

It's one thing to play a character that's fictitious - it's quite another to play somebody that is alive and well.

When you play a character that's someone real, when you're playing a true story, it's really great 'cause you're not pretending to make up some silly thing.

I am interested in biographical stories. Seldom are good biopics like 'Maha Nati' being made.

I never really thought about what characters I play. I always just wanted different characters.

It's a great challenge to get to play a real-life character. Every actor would love to get a chance, at least once in his life, to play a real-life character.

You are always invested in a film, but there is always a different feeling you get when you are portraying a character that is based on real life and you are re-telling events that actually took place.

I feel like because I've done more gay characters, gay scenes, or gay projects than most straight actors, people see it as some sort of mission. It's more of a case-by-case basis, and just trying to capture figures that I love. I guess that a lot of the figures that I love were gay.

It's always very daunting to play someone who actually existed. You have to honor that, and be specific and accurate and try to make people believe that you're that guy, which is really hard.

I'm doing a film called 'Black Mass' where I play James Bulger. The reason to play him is obvious to me. He's a fascinating character. It's not like anything I've done before on that level. I'm very excited to slide into that skin for a little bit.

It was difficult to find my way into 'I Am Abraham,' to feel confident enough to inhabit Lincoln's persona. I began with a prologue in a neutral voice, wrote of Lincoln at the White House with a sly young reporter quizzing him about his humble origins.

When you make movies based on real life, you try to exaggerate it.

A biopic would have required hiring an actor, and I always wanted to just let Bobby be Bobby. My thought was it would make it a more universal story to focus on ordinary people rather than this extraordinary man.

I've done a lot of movies based on real people, real situations, non-fiction books, magazine articles, life rights.

The way I approach acting when there's a real life character, it's sort of like a Venn diagram. What I come up with is some amalgam of the two of us.

Ben Kingsley was my ideal choice for Gandhi, and he really lived up to the expectations of an international audience. I did not find any Indian actor worthy to perform the role of Gandhi in the early Eighties, though there were brilliant performers like Naseeruddin Shah in India.

I actually think actors both are drawn to playing real-life historical people and are terrified.

Docudrama is not really my game, but it's interesting to play real people; it's interesting to play 'real.'

Obviously, as an actor, when you re playing a real person, it is an extra challenge.

I don't have a dream role as such, but given a chance, I would want to play a historic role.

It's an amazing role for any actor, so deep and challenging. And Anne Frank was such an amazing person, I feel honored to portray her.

Ranbir doesn't like to portray characters which are larger than life. I am very proud that he took such challenges.

It's better to play negative lead roles than portray just any other character on the show.

It's challenging to play a real-life character because you know that it existed in the history and you have certain parameters to follow and stay within.