Role Assignment Quotes

Casting is storytelling.

I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to casting, and it really is casting the best person for the role.

When we went to Judy Davis and said, 'We want you to play Judy Garland in the mini-series 'Life With Judy Garland,' she was shocked, but we just had an instinct about her.

For some reason, they always gave me a fat suit in high-school productions. If there was a character who needed to be robust, they gave me a fat suit, and I put on a silly voice.

I never write with an actor in mind - never.

The family uses people, not for what they are, nor for what they are intended to be, but for what it wants them for- its own uses. It thinks of them not as what God has made them, but as the something which it has arranged that they shall be.

My mom always said I was the peacemaker in the family. My older brother, Eric, was the leader, the creative one. I was just his puppet.

I have to say, speaking from experience, just because an actor starts out in a role in the workshop, they won't necessarily play it when it goes to Broadway.

The person who does that role better than anyone else is the person who should get that role, regardless of their background or heritage.

Even at drama school if there was a part of some eastern European thug it would be me.

To be completely honest, it's shocking to me that I keep getting the villain roles! I do not see myself as the villain and I know, growing up, I was the opposite of a villain. I would never try to be a villain to anyone - but maybe other people I grew up with feel differently about that.

When we were trying to find the woman to play Maura Isles, it was a no-brainer when Sasha came in. We just knew it was her, and she did such a fantastic job. She got the job, right then and there, in the room, and it was great. We actually played a little joke on her. She's a great lady and we've had a really, really fantastic time.

Every role you do is kind of a side of yourself. That's why they give you the part.

I worked so hard on that role [of Debra in Dexter]. And I barely worked on Rita. But I read for casting - both parts - and they said, "That's great, we're going to bring you in for producers." So I read for some producers - both parts - and they said, "That's great, we're going to bring you in to meet the creator." And I went in, and as soon as I walked in the room, he looked at me and he said, "Oh my god, you're our Rita!" And I said, "No! I'm Deb! I'm a total Deb!" "No, you're Rita!".

Casting is a big deal.

I was making myself a hotdog and pulling some curly fries out of the oven, and I got the call from manager, and she said, 'You got it. You're Betty Cooper.' It felt so unreal.

Yeah, I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone.

When 'The Lighthouse,' bizarrely, became the film that people wanted to greenlight, it was really clear that those were the only two people to play the roles. And I knew that they would want to do it.

Ninety percent of my roles, I've had to fight for. It's only a really small percentage of people who get handed roles.

Some people should just start ideas and other ones should carry them out.

I relieve myself from the rigours of directing by casting the movie correctly.

If I were to be cast as Cyrano or a Connecticut prep-school teacher or a gay boutique owner, it would only happen if some director I had worked with in the past said, 'Why don't we give Rispoli a shot at it?'

Casting is 65 percent of directing.

Sometimes it's all about the casting.

More will be accomplished, and better, and with more ease, if every man does what he is best fitted to do, and nothing else.