Laurence Olivier Quotes

I guess some characters always remain the same, and Macbeth is one of them.

I'd really like to play Lady Macbeth.

'Macbeth' is an amazing story.

I think there is this huge hole in Shakespeare that you do not know why Macbeth is who he is.

I'd make a wonderful Lady Macbeth. I'll wear a pair of platform shoes or something.

I started out doing things like 'Flash Forward,' where I was the girl-next-door, and then, I did a show called 'Higher Ground,' where I played this really mean, sarcastic girl. Then 'Firefly' happened, and everybody thought of me as this bubbly, sweet girl-next-door again.

I started off as an actor thinking that I would be this Romeo, this dashing leading man. It turns out that I'm a character actor.

'Macbeth,' I am ambivalent about. I don't like that play, in fact.

'Macbeth' is one of those books that demand all of your attention.

I think 'Macbeth' was a play that I've always gotten so much out of. My wife played Lady Macbeth in a play, and I designed it. There are things in there that are just kind of extraordinary.

We just don't need any more 'Macbeth's in the world, however brilliant mine might turn out to be.

Obviously, you look for something that is commensurate with your age. You know that you can't be playing the young hero anymore, and you have to be relegated to something smaller and something elderly, and you just try and do your best.

People ask me, 'Are you worried you're going to be typecast as a John Locke type of guy?' I say he's the perfect guy to be typecast as! He's vulnerable and ambitious and sort of unstable. It was a good actor's role.

I had been playing really interesting roles before I got great roles. Little ones - 'The Crying Game' I loved working on, and then 'Bird,' 'Ghost Dog,' so many films.

I've been in the fortunate position of playing these strong, snarky female characters since Dana Gordon on 'Entourage.'

I'd love to do something on 'Mad Men.' Or play Peter Dinklage's cousin on 'Game of Thrones.' That would be fun.

I don't know what I am. I guess you can call me a character actor in the sense that I'll never be an ingenue. You know, that's over. My shot was missed. I take a normal person and make them more of a character. I don't know what that would be called.

I liked 'Brighton Beach Memoirs,' which I did with Neil Simon. I kind of was playing him, as Eugene Morris Jerome, and I played that a few times at the very beginning of my career.

I'm just trying to play against ethnicity. I got to play a guy from Louisiana in 'The Pacific' named Merriell Shelton, and now I'm playing Elliot Alderman.

I would not want to go back to playing the ingenue.

I am aware of my film habits because I have for so long played guys who are darker or dealing with very complex issues, and they're dealing with their darker sides.

I've had the good fortune to play characters that have a role-model thing to them.

I want to be evil! I did play Lady Macbeth on stage to Alec Baldwin's Macbeth back in New York in 1998. But I've played a lot of characters who are so righteous and understanding. I don't want to be a goody-goody two-shoes all the time.

I am looking to play powerful characters and as far as biopics are concerned.

People always say, 'Oh, you've played a lot of waifs... ' but they were just girls. It's just that a lot of those everyday characters had never been on the screen before. I do hope I didn't get typed. I feel myself that I tried to do different things with those women.