Elizabeth Marvel Quotes

You always hear actors say, 'Theater is my first love,' and it is. It's a time when you really get to do what you do, and there's not a lot of waiting around and interruption and not a lot of money involved - sometimes money really clouds the waters of creativity.

My character has to be alive. It can't be a mere prop, and it has to have a life of its own. I need to have that space to play around and the scope to interact with the people around me. That freedom would give me a lot of margin to improvise with.

In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience.

I'd also like to do a play. I've never done theater, and constantly changing and refining a performance is something I'd like to do, even though it may sound like work to some people - and it probably is work.

Mostly, I have to say as an actor, to find a character that's been rich enough for 10 seasons of shows... that's very rare.

I've had some marvelous parts, but I'm also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

Usually I'm frustrated when I look at my films and I don't believe that I've made a real transformation beyond my usual sets of gestures and expressions. I still have this nagging feeling that it's me, that I didn't create a unique character.

I want to do primarily film and theater; I always want to do a play because it feeds my soul. It's like an exercise on stage.

I love an acting challenge, and I love getting to sit down with my script and do all my drama work.

I didn't want to be seen as just a guy on a list. I'm interested in good scripts, scripts that are about something, scripts that move your acting along.

They did cast me as an ingenue once, and the novelty was nice. But I said, 'There is nothing here to play!' I really like getting into the meat of a role.

I think the wonderful thing about doing theater is that it's more of an actor's medium. I think that film is more of a director's medium. You can't edit something out on stage. It's there.

So what's so enticing about doing a play is that you get to do that thing that got you into acting in the first place... There's a real attraction to being able to play, to just play. And that's something that theater affords you.

I'm not looking to do 'Half Nelson' next, but to play anything that's a little more complex is really fun.

Because I like theatre and I love a challenge. With 'ZEBRA!' I've found a new Australian play where I can create a character first - that's what I live to do.

I'd love to play more challenging roles, characters that would stretch my comfort zone and imagination.

I now want to be playing parts more interesting to me and more exciting to me.

In theater, the wellspring of the character comes from the doing of it, like a trial by fire, but in front of an audience.

Well, usually when I finish one character, I'm looking for a role that's really different.

For me to have the opportunity to stay with one character for, God willing, a long period of time, is really exciting.

All actors know that the real adrenaline rush is in doing theatre. There is an immediate connect, and a role in a play, for an actor, is the biggest temptation.

'Deadwood' was just a wonderful opportunity for me. Outside of my own things that I've written, I hadn't had the opportunity to play a character with that amount of depth and range.

I love the power of theater. I think it's an experience you never forget.

There's a great tradition of actors taking on parts of much less obvious sympathy.