Andrew Haigh Quotes

When you're doing lots and lots of episodes and you're playing the same character, it's great because you really get to know the character and it becomes a really fast style and you find subtleties in it.

Lead roles are fun, but I'm especially happy other, more colorful supporting stuff has come along.

I have no qualms about doing a character who may be below the lead in the pecking order, whether it's a hero or a villain or a comedian.

When a director narrates a character, I find it normal to ask questions about the character's background, mood swings, eccentricities, behaviour... I do this to make my performance relatable. Directors who don't know their characters well find it difficult to answer these questions and, hence, find me annoying.

The interesting thing about my character Sylar is that my strengths as an actor seemed to go completely against the shape of a character in the shadow.

My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people.

I'm always trying to improve my skills as an actor. I think it shows in 'El Gringo;' it shows in the new 'Universal Soldier.' You can't rest on your laurels; you've got to keep improving.

I just like a good story. I want the story to be good and I want the character to be different than the last one I played. That's not always possible, but that's what I want.

I always knew I'd be more of a character actor than a leading man, and I always wanted to take that and run with it.

I am most proud of the development of the characters as personalities that game players could relate to and care about.

I wouldn't be able to tackle a character like Rosalee on 'Underground' without having tackled the many characters I've played before.

I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

It's exciting to play someone who is a bit tougher than I am. I liked feeling those adjustments.

I don't care about the length of anything I play, as long as it's a good character.

I'm always interested in the ways in which a character can inhabit either a theme or a premise personally, so that those scenes that are about his character or his relationship with other characters feel in context and don't seem to be apart from or oddly vestigial to the actual drama.

I realized there's a difference between creating a character and sustaining a character. The challenge that comes with sustaining a character is that you have this sudden impulse to think about all the things the audience liked.

Good actors are always looking for props. They're looking for behavior. It makes it a lot easier. You're not solely dependent of what's coming out of your mouth. You're also less self-conscious, less aware of the camera.

Over the years, if you look at the films of people like Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, Frank Capra, their supporting characters, even if it's a doorman with two lines, always seem three-dimensional. To me, that's a sign of good storytelling.

That straight man character is a short trip between comedy and drama in a project, so I can play the comedic beat on the same page as a dramatic beat. It gives me a lot of freedom as an actor to play scenes in multiple ways because I don't play the clown, nor do I play someone who is particularly maudlin.

I think I try to look at all my films and break them down because, at the end of the day, it's about creating characters that you like.

I like the things every actor likes - I like great, intense duet scenes with good actors.

I think when you go in, with film or television, you want to tell this narrative. And with 'Joshy,' you want it to be grounded with moments - it's not like, 'Everyone be as funny as you can, quickly, at all times!' It's not like that. You have to pick the right improvisers.

On television, there isn't much scope to do different roles. I try to bring some new shades to my roles, and I try to play them differently. I think I have been able to manage that pretty well.

There's nothing interesting about seeing our characters for an hour and a half do some flashy flying in the sky and beating up on some buildings. It's boring, and people don't want that anymore. They want character, and they want story.

You cannot judge the performance of an actor in isolation. A performance becomes good because of so many factors, including the other actors.