Avi Arad Quotes

As a writer, one of the things we all learned from the movies was a kind of compression that didn't exist before people were used to watching films. For instance, if you wanted to write a flashback in a novel, you once had to really contextualize it a lot, to set it up. Now, readers know exactly what you're doing. Close-ups, too.

I don't play long parts. They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter, where people will notice when I'm on the screen, and people will remember the character after they've seen the film.

You know that was much more of a kind of cameo, I love the movie, I love the story, I love Johnny as a fun little role but it was more of a cameo, not anywhere near as developed as this role.

What matters is how good you are in the screen space you get.

'Baazigar' was the movie which initiated my drift towards acting.

Peter Mayhew had unique physical attributes. I don't have those. I mean, I'm just a regular guy who happens to be seven feet. Peter had huge hands, and his physical being created Chewbacca. I'm just trying to make sure Chewbacca stays on screen for more movies.

More than the length, it's the meat of the character that is more important. It does not matter if you are on screen, standing in the corner for the whole film, as opposed to doing something that stands out in two scenes.

It's not, like, how long you are on the screen, 'Karwaan' being the biggest the example. I may have had a five-minute role, but I know the appreciation that I got was a lot more than a five-minute role deserved probably.

There are only three reasons to do a movie: the cast, the director, the role. Like I say, you live in a minute of screen time, but to prepare for the minute takes much more than a day. You'd better be excited about what those moments are, even if they're the hardest moments. Or the smallest.

I'd like to be a better writer, but I have no dreams to direct or do a screenplay. And I'd love to have a big starring role in a movie because the paycheck would be bigger. That's the only reason I do films.

It's rather rare when you play an older character in a movie in a supporting role to even get an arc.

I'm always interested in telling stories that have a message because I really do believe that film is so powerful.

I appreciate the written word and spoken word more, but Atonement sort of established so much of me. It was a character that didn't really speak, and I found that a lot of the roles I was gravitating toward after that were kind of nonverbal.

I love character roles. I'm happier in them. I look for roles that have some kind of complexity.

I'm an actor and I am looking for roles where I can continue to evolve, and things that are challenging. I gravitate to the roles, not necessarily television or film. It's just the fact that, for me, the most interesting roles have been in television.

If you understand your character and feel like it's a collaborative process, you're more inclined to dive into the deep end and fight for your character and feel passionate about your character, and that passion comes across on screen.

I watched a lot of movies. I was deeply influenced by movies.

When you play the young girl a lot, you can be in the movie a lot and have nothing to do.

[As a producer] [Big Little Lies] is the stories of women that I know, and it was a way in which we could go to other women and say, "Here's a great role. There's five great roles here. They're all complicated. They all deserve to be told, and are you interested?" And that is rare.

Let's start creating better roles that accurately depict people we know so closely.

The characters I have the least in common with are the ones I have the greatest success with. The further a role is from my own experience, the more I try to deepen it.

My relationship with Leonard [Nimoy] was a byproduct of playing Spock that I never would have imagined, but the more I got to know him, the more I realized, there are no mistakes. I'm playing this role for very specific reasons, and maybe those reasons have to do with where I am creatively in my life, but maybe they have to do with where I am personally in my life. Leonard was such a teacher for me.

Whatever role we were in our family of birth, we take on this persona and in your 20s and 30s in particular, you end up thinking that's you and that isn't necessarily you.

I'm kind of at the mercy of writers out there. I need a writer out there who wants to write a vehicle for me. Do it and get it to me immediately. I do want to be a lead. I want to play a lead role in a movie.

What has emerged as I've gotten older is simplifying the characters I play, unless the role calls for something that is arcane or ornate.