Dirk Benedict Quotes

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

I consider myself a character actor.

It's funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.

The idea of an actor is that you should be able to play anything.

I think younger fans can't quite grasp that's what you do as an actor. They're like, 'It doesn't make sense. How can he talk like this when he talks like that on the show!' It's really cute, actually.

I think I have proven that I can play any type of character.

I'm a character actor and I get lost in these characters, so I think it's only recently that people have begun to connect dots and go, 'Oh, that's the same person that did this, this, this, this and this!' which I take as a compliment. One time somebody called me an illusionist, and that was the nicest thing anyone has ever said.

Martin Freeman is a genius, he really is. He gives you every color of the rainbow in every take and it's wonderful just to play off of him and opposite him.

Any good actor is a character actor.

As an actor, you don't want to play a one-dimensional character.

I find it quite easy to get in and out of character. I don't know why - I guess it's my job.

I'm a character actor; that's my skill set.

It's a challenge, writing about actors, especially a good actor, because you can't always tell when they're being honest and when they're pretending - that is, when they're acting. The really good ones don't always seem to know themselves.

Here's what I have at my advantage: I've never been a personality. I've always been a character actor.

If Brando can do Capote and I can do Brando - well then, I can do Capote.

I want everyone to understand that as an actor you need to be able to play different roles, be versatile even in terms of your personality.

I love doing characters that surprise people and showing what I am, which is an actor, first and foremost.

None of the characters I've played are really like me. That would be boring. That wouldn't be acting.

I love going back and forth from drama to comedy. I love switching it around and showing people that I can do both.

I do think I'm a character actor.

Basically, you're selling a world as an actor, right? I mean it's like any sales person: if you believe in your product, you know your product, you sell it a lot better.

Even when you are playing someone who is real, you get their mannerisms and you get their little quirks, but, it still has to be something inside of you that connects with the role, or else you will not be any good.

It's no accident that Tony Hopkins is a wonderful film actor.

There are actors who can pull of a writer's lines; I am not competent enough to do that.

As an actor, you try to put a little bit of yourself in everything you do.