Actor's Choice Quotes

Everybody tells me to only do action films, but I would love to do horror, too.

Maybe because I'm a nice and sweet person in life, I like the darker roles. The really dark one is Lady Macbeth.

Usually, I end up looking for something completely different to who I last played. But there is just a spark that's lit when I read a script or character I want to play.

The studio thought I was crazy to perform all of my own fencing stunts, but I loved it.

I had a chance to do 'Ant-Man' in 2011.

When I was younger, I didn’t know that I should just listen to my own voice, my own artistic sense of things when I was choosing projects, because one of the biggest creative decisions that an actor can make in the film business is what you will work on.

It might be different for people that are A-list actors, but a lot of us really look at what's offered to us and look for something that has some traction with other people. But, it's not like I read 100 scripts a week, and then pick and choose. Maybe some actors do. I certainly don't do that.

I snootily say I can't take too many dramatic parts, as it's taking work from actors who aren't funny.

It has happened with me that I get a role of a cop for a film. Few directors typecast you if you do that particular role well. But, it is the actor who has to decide whether he fits in that role or not.

I think it's the actor's job - when you think of being typecast or getting out of the shadow of whatever you've had success in - it's up to you as an actor. The industry will always want to hire you for what you were successful in last and what made money. But you can say no to that and look for other parts.

I can say I'm not doing 'X-Men.' I love the franchise, and I love the people who make them on and off screen.

Classics stay alive because a great actor or a great director wants to do them.

Sometimes, I can read a great script, and I don't like the part, or I don't think I'm right for it. I mean, there are times I've read really great parts and think there's so many other actors who could do this better than me. And I just say no to it.

I think that each character has fascinated and interested me enough to want to play him.

One thing that I've been very vocal about roles I take, and my representation has been very smart about, is that I didn't go to Juilliard to be "Thug #2" in movies. I like to be challenged. I'd say that about 40% of the roles I've done have been written for white men.

Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to be a celebrity? I made that decision when I went to Juilliard. I wanted to be an actor. So, if I get the opportunity to be an actor and do some cool, fun and interesting projects, I'm going to do that.

When you sign up for a TV show, you don't know if it's going to be for a pilot or for the rest of your life, so I wanted to play a character that I enjoyed thoroughly, and there weren't that many of them out there.

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

I do try to look at scripts and keep an eye out for challenging roles.

When I first heard 'Robocop' was going to be remade. I said, 'Yeah, that's interesting. I'll probably watch that at some point, but I'm not interested at all to be in it.'

When an artiste says that, after two heavy films, let me do a light one, somewhere they want to balance it out for the audience, not for themselves.

I haven't always played nice guys. In 'Gremlins,' I was a conceited, pompous braggart, and I was a redneck chauvinist in the TV movie 'A Matter of Sex.' But I really prefer sympathetic roles.

I informed Malayalam filmmakers that I can do a film for free if the role excites me.

When an actor is offered a role, more often than not - maybe 90 percent of the time - you read it and you say, "I'll take it."

The first time I had got an offer to come to Hollywood, I turned it down. I said, "No, I'm an actor of the stage.