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.
I'm an actor; I want to play roles, not a role.
Gary Oldman is my TV hero. The incredible thing about Gary Oldman is his versatility.
I certainly don't like to play a bad guy. There are no bad people. It's only shades of grey. Also, I am not a great actor who can transform completely into a totally different character for a movie. I am not a trained actor.
If you call yourself a singer, then you must have the ability to sing anything, whether it's pop, classical, rock, sufi, or folk.
I can play a doctor, and I can play a thug.
I just like the prospect of playing lots of different types of characters and just the opportunity to challenge yourself, do something different and surprise people.
I can do Shakespeare, Ibsen, English accents, Irish accents, no accent, stand on my head, tap dance, sing, look 17 or look 70.
There's some kind of actors that can radically change who they are from movie to movie. I've never really been that kind of actor. I enjoy changing the worlds that I'm in.
I want variety. I want versatility. Otherwise, I'm wasting the opportunity of being an actor, which is all about variation and change.
I believe singing should be like being an actor. People shouldn't have any problem buying an actor being in a comedy or a drama or a horror film. That should be the same way with music.
The actors I admire, like Ben Kingsley or Daniel Day-Lewis, they totally reinvent themselves in every part. I hope I get a chance to do that.
I love what I do. And in the true sense, from my training, I try to create a character each time. It is something I do. But I don't want that term to limit what I can do. I prefer people to say to me, 'You're one of my favorite actors,' rather than 'You're one of my favorite character actors.' It sounds like a slam.
Look at me! I can go from 'Donny and Marie' to Sam Peckinpah to Radio City Music Hall in one week.
Actors are different. Some actors play themselves very successfully, but I come from the theater. Having done Shakespeare, we sometimes did three or four characters in the same play.
Unfortunately, I feel as actors we have to fight for the right to really go in as many directions as possible.
An actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor, I can play anything.
I am an actor, I can do any role.
As a musician, I don't have one thing that's "my thing." I like to create, and have a lot of outlets for it. Dustin Hoffman is one of the guys that sets a model for me, because of how good he is at being such different characters. Every time you see DeNiro, he's pretty much DeNiro - great, but DeNiro. Hoffman is different every time, depending on his character. That's how I see myself as a performer.
Definitely. Cate Blanchett or Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore - women that have no boundaries, no borders. They can do anything, They can be any character and you accept it and go with it as a viewer, and as an audience member. That's the kind of career that I'm looking for.
I can go from one extreme to another, from playing at the Sydney Opera House on the Songbook tour to shows with Soundgarden at Voodoo Fest, all in a week.
I have always believed that an actor cannot afford to have a favorite genre. He must excel in every kind of film and fit in with every director's vision.
Marlon Brando changed everything for actors. After him, everyone wanted to be Marlon. No one wanted to be a type: they all wanted to display versatility in every role.
Any actor worth his salt has a responsibility to reinvent himself from part to part.
I think it's natural if you're doing a lot of comedy to do a lot of drama, because you have to figure out the real version of the joke.
