Cuba Gooding Jr. Quotes

Some actors are brilliant character guys. They submerge.

It's true I have a hard time with the notion of creating a character. And I feel it's a limit. I'm always really impressed by actors who are able to construct a character, like Johnny Depp.

I still think of myself as a stage actor. When I do film and television I try to implement what I was taught to do in theatre, to try to stretch into characters that are far from myself.

The nuances and organic characteristics of a character become second nature if I'm doing my job well.

I don't believe actors who say they don't bleed into their characters. It's absolutely impossible not to.

Some actors can distance themselves from the parts they play, but I fall into the category who use bits of themselves.

All of the actors that have served to me as inspiration over the years have been those more associated with dramatic work who have, in turn, been able to embody their characters and lose themselves in those characters that they create.

It's easier to see in someone else, another actor, how they kind of disappear and then this other persona appears. A great actor is a thing of mystery.

Actors who say they can dive inside a character are either schizophrenic or lying.

There are actors who are really fantastically talented at being natural on screen and appearing to be themselves, but I like the challenge of becoming somebody else.

Actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, they totally immerse themselves in their parts.

When I see an emotion being enacted by a great actor, I always feel I can never do that.

I was blown away watching Michael Keaton act because he was such a maniacal, evil person on set. He takes on a totally different life, and it was so amazing to watch him work.

When you watch me on the screen, you should not be able to recognise me. If people say, you're a natural and an organic actor, that's an insult. If you're being yourself all the time on screen, that means you don't know how to act.

I feel it's very important for an actor to believe in the character that he/she is playing and do full justice to it in order to convince others that you are the character you are portraying.

The actors I admire, like Ben Kingsley or Daniel Day-Lewis, they totally reinvent themselves in every part. I hope I get a chance to do that.

There's lots of incredible roles out there that I'd love to tackle, but there's a select group of actors I find myself gravitating towards, like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Sean Penn or Daniel Day-Lewis - real transformational actors.

I love acting... I really do. I love crawling into another character's skin. That's something that I've always, always, always, always wanted.

The worst acting is about imitation.

All my characters are me. I'm not a good enough actor to become a character. I hear about actors who become the role and I think 'I wonder what that feels like.' Because for me, they're all me.

Acting is about covering up traces of who you are and just being the character. I think it's easier to accept people in roles if you don't know a lot about them.

There's a lot of actors that I admire because they can just switch one second into the character. Then, they go back to jokes, and then they're doing something really dramatic. I can't do that. I have to really focus.

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.

Actors walk around wearing these little tool-belts of acting skills. And I just don't find that interesting to watch. I never want to see someone who clearly can cry at the drop of a hat. That's so uninteresting.

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