Range of Characters Quotes

An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God that'd be a boring career.

I wouldn't want to be associated with one character, because I want to be able to do different roles.

I want to bring something different to every film. I get a bit tired of actors who kind of are the same character in every film that they do.

What's enjoyable for me, as an actor, is to do as many different things as possible.

I call myself a character actor all my life. I've done a certain amount as a leading man, but character actors in my estimation - it's a lost art these days.

I try not to limit myself. The actors that inspire me are the comedians and the people able to shape-shift into different roles and into different media. That ensures your longevity as an artist and prevents you from getting bored with yourself and, hopefully, prevents people from getting bored with you.

I think I've had more of a variety in what I've done than most actors.

I have never wanted to be typecast, one of those actors who plays a variation on a one-note theme. So just as I enjoy playing a wide variety of characters, from good to bad to ugly to cute - so I have enjoyed of late working in film and television, as well as in theatres of various sizes and shapes.

I love doing roles and movies that are different from each other. That's kind of why I like to be an actor because I get to play different characters and pretend I'm different people going through different situations.

For me, I've been really, really lucky because I have been able to play a lot of different parts.

I love the chameleon nature of this business [acting]. I always have. Sometimes I'm not as recognizable as somebody else and I may not have gotten a role, but for me, acting is not a competition. I've just kept my head down and kept working, and had the great pleasure of working with some amazing people and playing some extraordinary and extreme characters.

Yeah, I am a character actor.

I've never been the actor who did one job, and everyone went, 'Wow!'

I think if you're able to do over the course of your career 20, 30, 50 very wonderful rich characters, you'd rather have that than an Oscar.

I'm very fortunate that I get asked to do very different kinds of roles and I realize how much I enjoy that. I enjoy the challenge of transformation. There are actors who play one character, or a certain kind of character, the whole of their lives. I really relish the opportunity to have the challenge to totally transform.

After my father had seen me in five or six things, he said, Son, your mother and I really enjoyed your recent film, and I must say that you're a lot like John Wayne. And I said, How so? And he said, Well, you're exactly the same in all your roles. Now, as a modern American actor, that's not what you want to hear. But for a guy who watched John Wayne movies and grew up in Iowa, it's a sterling compliment.

It's really interesting, for an actor, that you can continue to do season after season and not play the same role.

I'm a different actor than you thought I was. Don't put me in a box. I'm not just some kid running around screaming curse words.

What's the good thing about being an actor, you can do more things. Not just being a comedian, not going overboard but expressing myself within the confines of a film.

As actors you don't want to have one label. You'd rather have seven.

From the time I became an actor my whole approach was to try to do as many different things as possible. It never occurred to me that I might be typecast.

I did go to public school, but that's only because my parents were abroad. As a matter of fact, I think that's helped my work. I can go from Victoria Wood's 'Dinnerladies' to playing Barbara Cartland, from 'Coronation Street' to playing Celia in Last 'Tango'.