Steve Carell Quotes

I think it's my job to like any character I play - to understand and appreciate a character, to look at the world as much as possible from their point of view. I don't look at it just technically: learn the lines, figure out what gestures I want to bring and play, and that's it. I like to learn as much as I can about the person, and see what happens.

There's always that key to every character that lets you go to those places you need to go to. No matter how much you might hate the character, it makes you understand it.

If you look at a character as a mountain over there that you have to climb, then I think you've lost 50 percent of the air.

I don't think you have to like a character, but if you can understand why they do what they do, or the position they're in or why they make certain choices, then you can get behind them.

The more I love the character, the harder it is to get it wrong. I have to get to a point that I can speak for them.

I don't have any special approach for playing dark characters. That's because I never looked at them as dark characters per se. For me, they were real people.

I don't try to intellectualize characters too much. But I always think of the audience. I always make sure that my characters are likeable.

If you never fall in love with your character, you'll never be able to do that character justice. No matter who it is, no matter what the character does, you have to find the reason for it. Everyone's got a reason for what they do, even if it's a reason that they're not proud of.

For me, with any character, there are different ways that you approach understanding him, and in this film in particular, because I had the novel to refer to. It's always really helpful to have all of that information and all of those hundreds more words which give you an idea into the background and your character and all.

I think there's a bit of me in every character. Basically it just depends on what happens with the character.

You have to be able to get inside the heads of the characters and completely sympathize and understand them.

I think you always need to be able to relate to your characters, but that doesn't necessarily mean...you have to understand why they do what they do, but you don't actually have to be like that yourself.

You definitely put a bit of yourself in every character, and you always have to have an understanding and empathy for the person that you play.

Anytime you take on a character... you just have to find the parts of the character that you can understand.

I feel like there are things I can relate to in every character. But I feel like when you read a script, you don't get to see the definition behind someone, you just get to read what the person goes through and find a place to come from to make it real.

I like all my characters in one way or another, or at least I understand them.

When I step into a character's shoes, I don't judge them. I make a conscious effort not to look from the outside in but look from the inside out, and when you do that it allows you to feel and sense things more, and act and react from a core, you know?

I think the idea is to try and understand everything about the characters and where the character is coming from, from their point of view, why they say what they do. And not, 'Oh, but I would never say that. Why does the character say that?' But then making it as personal as possible.

When you're playing a character, as an actor or actress, you can't judge them for what they do. You really have to find what is in them that you have compassion for and fall in love with that character, regardless of what they do or how they behave.

You have to have sympathy for and an empathy with a character in order to play them.

My job as the actress playing Hanna Schmitz, as the actress playing any part, is to understand the character, and to ultimately love the character. And I did love Hanna, absolutely, because I understood her as profoundly as I did at the end of the day.

Often, if I read a story and I'm moved, I have an understanding for a character and I don't really know why.

When I look at a character, whether he's good or bad, one scene or 10 scenes, I just have to find my way in.

I'm not a method actor. I try to stay separate but to imagine what they'd feel, to put myself in their shoes.

When I prepare for a role, I try to get inside the character's head and understand him.