Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Quotes

I think doing dramas kind of wears on you. It's just intense.

I have great mood swings, maybe because of playing lots of different characters as I do. I'm like a gymnast whose muscles get too stretched. I've got better at it, but I have a lot of emotional energy.

I did 'Shameless' on Showtime, and I felt like I really tried to go super-method with that, and it would just make my days really hard to get in and out of character.

I think I understand why most actors and actresses are insane, because having to go through an emotional roller coaster as your job every day of your life would make somebody absolutely loopy.

It was hard not to feel violated [in Stone movie], 'cause I have to go home after walking in these shoes all day. It plays a number on your head. Some days I came home and was really upset; it was hard to see the baby [Jovovich's 2-year-old daughter].

You're playing a role, but you're still feeling it. You can walk away from it after 'Cut,' but if you're playing a sad or mixed-up person, it's hard to stay in that place for these longish period of times. You kind of have to check out.

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

We ask actors to come to work ready to open a vein, to be emotionally thin-skinned. If someone screams, 'What about my coffee?' it's not about the coffee; it's because they're working in an emotional state. It ain't easy being an actor.

Any time you make a movie where you're living in a certain head space for an extended period of time, it's tough not to take a little piece home with you.

I don't live that much with the character. I find it hard enough having to spend so many hours with the character during the day.

My biggest challenge will be to play the totally submissive woman. It takes a toll on you when you play someone who's far removed from your personality.

Physically, it is very demanding as an actor, and I don't want to put a lot of focus on that, but I think it is emotionally and mentally a lot more... It can completely twist you... We abandon ourselves for days and months, and by the end of it, we are twisted people which you make fun of.

It wears on your soul when you take on the mental state of a dark character.

Acting is a psychological profession, and every character drains you emotionally, regardless of whether it is an intense art house movie or a light-hearted commercial series.

I do some really intense roles and it's not good to bring them home.

When I have to do an emotional scene, I sometimes feel drained right before doing it.

Often, when I am playing difficult roles, I have a problem sleeping because I can't leave the character behind.

Doing 'Hedwig' was so hard that I kind of burned out on acting.

As an actor, I think it's always important to separate yourself from your characters because, when you include yourself in a character, you're taking a liberty that you don't really have unless you're life is that incredibly close to the character.

With big, emotional roles it's very easy, especially if you've grown up in the American school of acting, to exploit your own pain. You have to be careful about that, because 9 times out of 10, your pain is not appropriate to the character.

When you finish a film, if you believed in your character, you're empty.

There is always pressure playing a real living person and even pressure developing a character from scratch.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers.

I often talk with other actors about that time when you've just finished a job, because I think you do take on the characteristics of some of the characters you play. Sometimes it can be a great thing and sometimes it's a bit haunting because you're not quite sure how to leave it on set. My dad talks about it as being 'de-personalised.'

Between takes I find it difficult to switch off and then try and re-emerge myself in the part, so I try to stay in that frame of mine all day. It can be exhausting and you lose a sense of self, but it is the method that works best for me.