Character Research Quotes

In terms of preparation, if there's some historical context that's needed, I do like to read a lot. Working on Joe Kennedy for 'Boardwalk,' I read a couple of biographies on him. It's nice to have a broader context of the man outside of where the show is coming from.

I'm not a method actor per se, but if I'm playing a character that, at its core of its persona, has experiences I don't have, I try to search out and get firsthand experiences of similar sorts so I have something to fantasize about.

The way I prepare is through script analysts and back story. I create back story for a character based on script analysts, filling in as many details as possible. I also do a lot of research.

I don't do method acting. If I play a farmer, I'm not gonna spend 3 weeks on a chicken farm. That's a bit too much for me.

And I think when you're playing someone who is a real person, it's extremely important to take the time and put in the effort to learn about who they are to be able to respectfully portray that.

I did this movie right after it about the life of Chet Baker. It's called Born to Be Blue. In that situation, there's a real clear character you're drawing on. It's a real person. It's really exciting and interesting to do the research to figure out how to make that a nuanced, three-dimensional human being.

I won't even think about acting in a role where I didn't do a back story for a character.

I love spending time researching a character and reading about them.

I wouldn't say I'm a method actor. I do research when I feel I don't have enough experience for the part I'm playing.

The great thing about films is that you have access to this whole world of experts who teach you the skills your character's supposed to have.

In acting, you get to explore such an artistic side with different characters to research and learn and explore different things inside yourself and I do that anyway, so I might as well be doing something that I already do, as in a second nature to me, on film.

Before we shot the pilot, I knew what 'Dallas' was, but I actually was too young to remember the details of the show. I didn't have my hands on the DVDs, so I YouTubed everything I could of J.R.

It wasn't until I booked the role of Cyborg that I was sent literally everything Cyborg-related from DC comics.

I find that when I play reality-based characters, it is only as fun for me if I have a lot of time to do research. If I don't it just isn't exciting but if I do, it can be fun because I can learn about that person and the world that they live in and I can become somebody else.

One never knows enough about characters in real life to put them into novels. One gets started and then, suddenly, one can not remember what toothpaste they use; what are their views on interior decoration, and one is stuck utterly. No, major characters emerge; minor ones may be photographed.

I research the role, and if it's a literary character, I read the book, and if it's an historical figure, I research documents and biographies. If it's a fictional character, I work off the script.

Whenever you're going to play a real person, you run the risk of well, everybody in the world kind of has an image of what that person is and who he should be and so you really have to do your homework.

I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.

When I find the character, I try to spend time with them and get to know them very well. Therefore my notes are not from the character that I had in my mind before, but are instead based on the people I've met in real life.

I had to do a lot of preparation for 'Kaaka Muttai.' I had to literally spend every night and morning in the slums, observing the life of people there, and work on my diction.

I quite like the transitions of being an actor, because you get to explore these little pockets of life. So if you're playing a builder you get to know about building, if you're playing a scientist or a physician or something you get to know about physics. And similarly with this world I like exploring their culture, that very sort of upper middle class, addictive... that's part of the reason I love it.

It helps to write as the character that I am trying to be, and try to journal every day as them. Once I've already recorded thoughts as this person, it's easier to just flip back through and be like, 'Oh, yeah, this is what she's thinking; this is what she's feeling.'

If I am playing a historical character, I try to watch the person in newsreels and read about them, but I will not imitate them.

When I am searching for a character, I leave myself open, as does a medium. And I think that sometimes you can be inhabited by the spirit of someone who lived at some time or who was a bit like the person you are doing. And maybe they come in and use you as a chance to relive again.

I always find with my stories that the way they start is that I just get so interested in a person that I'm compelled to go back to them over and over until I learn more and more about them, without even quite thinking it's material for a book.