Career Breakthrough Quotes

My big break was becoming the spokesperson for Texas Instruments. Casting directors really started giving me a chance to read for projects.

Malayalam cinema has given me the biggest break and has been like a school for me on how to perform.

Obviously, many people may remember me as the first winner of 'The Apprentice,' but prior to that, I was an entrepreneur. I started my first business when I was in college, and then getting my lucky break was when Donald Trump hired me on.

Before that film, I was nobody. Each job I got, I was so excited. Each paycheck I got, I thought, 'Wow, I'm getting paid to act.' But 'The Matrix' gave me so many opportunities. Everything I've done since then has been because of that experience. It gave me so much.

My career, definitely, the early years were a little scattershot, in terms of - it was a little regional theater, it was a lot of voiceovers, it was a lot of random day jobs. I mean, it was hard. It was hard to scrap around, and once 'Hairspray' happened, then it all kind of clicked into place.

I'm at a really good spot in my career, to the point where I feel like I could explode at any moment. If I keep progressing with my game at this rate, I think I'll be a big factor

I couldn't get a job to save my life. That's why I wrote 'Road to Paloma.' That got into Sundance and got into that scene, and that's how I got the role in 'The Red Road.'

I was going through a very bad phase when 'Kyunki... Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi... ' happened. I was just not getting any work.

I struggled for a while, but when I was cast in an Off Broadway show called 'Once Upon a Mattress,' that kind of put me on the map.

I'd done light comedy. In some quarters, About Last Night... is a romantic comedy. So it wasn't like I'd been doing Sophie's Choice my entire career. But for whatever reason, nobody had really given me the room or the ability to be out and out funny. And Lorne [Michaels] and Mike [Myers] and Chris [Farley] and Dana [Carvey], that crop really helped me do that.

Well, I've been happily supporting myself for ten years now on the hustle and trade of live entertainment. I guess my breakthrough moment was when I decided to go for it once and for all.

'10' was amazing! I had no career before '10' and then all of a sudden I was able to do pretty much whatever I was able to do in the business.

My big break was really Liz Meriwether saw me in a movie called 'Paper Heart' and really liked it, and then saw me in a movie called 'Ceremony' because she knew Max Winkler and said, 'I want you to be in 'No Strings Attached,' but you gotta audition for it.' From that it was easier for her to get me in 'New Girl.'

I kind of got my big break with 'The Princess Diaries' and during the press rounds for that everyone asked me: 'Did you always want to be a princess growing up?' And the truth was, no I wanted to be Catwoman.

If it wasn't for Boz, my life would've changed. Meeting the Porcaro brothers and getting that Boz Scaggs gig were two life-changing events for me. It all fell into place after that.

I was picked by Pradeep Sarkar for a huge campaign called 'Bharat Nirman' and he infused a lot of confidence in me and from thereon my journey started.

I've been really lucky. When I decided to go to LA I said I was going to quit modelling and just go and see how I do. In the first two weeks I got three movies. I was so excited I had all my furniture shipped out from New York.

'Soul Plane' put me in a position to succeed. I'm glad I had the opportunity to be the lead man.

I think 'The Witch' was actually my 100th job. Only took me 100 jobs to get a lead! But it did change things a lot. It was a magical thing for Rob Eggers to pick me out of the all the actors he could have for that part. It was an amazing part. It's changed my career massively.

I owe a lot to my time on 'House of Cards' because, up until I booked that show, I had been working consistently for 12 years, but I wasn't working on anything that mattered in the way 'House of Cards' did to its audience, to casting directors, to directors and producers. The show hit this sweet spot.

Wes Craven was the guy who gave me my start, from my perspective, for almost no reason in particular.

I was doing theatre when somebody noticed me and referred me to Raju Hirani. And Raju saw me on camera, and there, I was a heavy guy with long hair. But I got selected for the role of Joy in '3 Idiots.'

'The Good Wife' was definitely the biggest surprise and gift that I've had in a long time, and that did come out of some other work that I had done. That whole adage of 'work begets work' actually worked in that case - it was at the very end of their first season that my character was first introduced.

I think the thing that really started setting my career on the course that it's on is when I did '1000 Cats' on 'Funny or Die Presents' on HBO. That's what I feel like kind of got me a little bit more into the system.

When I got my first check from 'Rack City,' I was like, 'Damn, I can make this much money making beats?'