David Harewood Quotes

I love playing 'Madame Vastra.' Although I do suffer, spending three-and-a-half hours in make-up every morning to have her lizard skin put on. I was so excited the first day when we did the make-up test, but after six hours, I was like, 'Can we finish now?'

For an actor to create a different look for every film is not easy.

I feel like you can do all the research in the world, but when you start putting that costume on, put your hair in a wig and walk into those sets, that's where the visceral reaction is. It's no longer in the head. It's in the body.

I've always wanted to shave my head for a role because I've wanted to play a character who had a shaved head. I don't know what the fascination is.

In 'Delhi Belly,' I was bald; in other movies I always carried a different look.

The first lead that I ever played was a young Boy George when I was seventeen. I shaved my eyebrows off. That's as far from leading man looks as you can get.

In 2004, I was on the West End stage in The Woman In White, and for every show I had to climb into a fat suit to play the obese Count Fosco. It was hard work, and unbearably hot, but I sailed through because I'd always kept myself fit.

That was the fun of acting, being a blank canvas you could transform into the character - Indian princess, 20s vamp, Mother Courage, Oxford don, 94-year-old wife.

What I like about acting is that you can be a different person every day.

I was filming 'The Avengers' when I got the call for 'Rush,' so I went from 215 pounds, which is how much I weigh when I'm playing Thor, down to about 185 pounds to be able to fit into the car. That was all in about four months.

Acting is a bigger step into modelling in a way. Modelling is easier when you don't look like yourself. When you look like a different person, you feel different. Acting goes deeper into that; you have to move and talk like that character. I love it.

One of the fun things about being an actor is stepping outside yourself and outside of your own experience. It's challenging yourself to totally commit to something that in your core is so wrong.

Good actresses can often accomplish miracles, and it is possible to be someone you've never been or will be. But in a sitcom, there's no time.

Modeling is a lot of fun, but I prefer acting. It's so much fun to get to play different characters and transform into someone else for a while.

I gained the weight on purpose for 'Little Nicky,' and it was one of those cases where I'd done a few roles where I looked the same way, and I wanted to be the roommate because I thought that was the funniest part for me.

As an actor, you don't want to know the beginning and end to your character's arc. It makes it more fun. You're not playing the end. You're playing it realistically. You don't know where this character is going to go and what's going to happen to him, which just makes it more interesting for the viewers to watch.

I don't shoot two films at the same time. I finish one character and get into another character because I change my look for every film. It's difficult, but I enjoy doing that.

As an actor, particularly because I'm - I would call myself a character actor. I change my look, my physical appearance and my body, my hair color, my whatever all the time for a role.

We have actors from other films, from 'Baywatch,' and so on, and these people are looking exactly the opposite of what they are. The transformations were so smooth, and so funny to watch, it was unbelievable.

Playing Willie Loomis was really fun for me because it was something nice and different to embody. It was neat playing this drunken servant who was hypnotized by Johnny Depp.

I didn't know how to box so I would have looked like a complete street fighter actually, but what we did have to do was pick up some sides and then just memorize them within two days and go there and audition.

I once did a role which I couldn't rehearse in my street clothes, I had to have the character's costume on before I could rehearse it. I just couldn't think as the character unless I looked like him, or I knew that I looked like him.

Any time you get to play or dress differently or look differently, as an actress, that's incredibly exciting.

I took my pants off in my 'SNL' audition. It was to do a character called Out of Breath Jogger from 1982. I had short shorts on underneath. It eventually aired, so it was worth it!

Even in comedy, I'm always the straight guy, which is okay because that's a skill. But it would be nice to get out of that box.