Vincent D'Onofrio Quotes

I've got to tell you, I've played real characters before and people always bring up this word 'impersonation,' and I'm never entirely sure what it means.

I think it's fun playing a part that lots of other people have played, in a way.

I didn't want to see George Hamilton playing me, I wanted the real thing.

I always figure hey, look, I'm not a rock star, I'm an actor. I'm somebody who's meant to be other people and I'm not meant to be here representing myself. I'm happier when I'm presenting myself as other characters.

I don't play many characters like myself. Oh I don't know what I am!

Weirdly, when I'm playing an English person, I feel like I've got nothing to hang on to, and it feels a bit strange and exposing.

'Inherent Vice' was a novel that already existed, and in 'Steve Jobs,' I was playing a real person; in those situations, you do feel an added pressure to please.

It's amazing how you get to recreate somebody else's life on-screen. It's wonderful when you get responses like, 'You actually look like him.'

You kind of wonder when you play a role, will people go 'Oh, is that part of you?'

If you play a real character who's famous and still alive, it makes things easier if you have the luck to have a good relationship with them.

Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience.

I think every role you take on, you should take on the responsibility of doing the best representation of that person or that character or that role. When it is a human being that has actually existed, and it is a person that people know of, yeah, you feel an even more amount of pressure to do a good job.

Look up the word role in the dictionary and you'll see it means playing a part. That's why I call myself a real model.

I don't want to say I'll never play someone with a cockney accent, but I think I would be irritated by me doing it.

When you're playing a fictional character reacting to the real world, it's incredibly difficult and confusing and kind of messes with your values a bit.

In all my years as an actor, I had never been me - I had always hidden behind my glasses, mustaches and funny voices.

What's nice about playing somebody real is that generally there's more information about them, so a lot of the questions that you'd otherwise have to make up the answers to are already there.

The most difficult part of playing Christ was that I had to keep up the image around the clock. As soon as the picture finished, I returned home to Sweden and tried to find my old self. It took six months to get back to normal.

At least when you're acting you can be someone. In front of the camera you have to be yourself. And who am I?

Obviously, any time you're closer in terms of what your knowledge is to a character, you can add something. But an actor's job is not to play only people he can identify with.

It's going to be very interesting to see somebody playing me.

I've spent all my life playing roles that illustrious people have played before me.

When people think of performing they usually think of show-offs, but I think of it more that you disappear into somebody else.

I was asked if I would play President Obama in 'My Name is Khan.' I didn't feel comfortable with doing it. Partly because he was still in office, but mainly because I felt that there were other people who were better suited to doing the role.

Let me put it this way. There is more to acting than just acting like somebody. I like to act in such a way that other people get some notion of what it's like to be somebody.