Versatility in Acting 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 feel like it's really important for an actor to play different roles so people can see, "Oh, he can play that guy or he can play this guy." You're not just "THAT guy," that cowboy guy, that whatever guy. Then you are limiting yourself.

I always considered myself as a character actor. I always try to be versatile to show different sides of human experience.

You can bring truth to anything, whether it's a dance movie or an incredibly poignant indie drama or a really broad comedy. As long as you show up to play, I don't think you can go wrong.

Sometimes I can inhabit a feisty, vicious character. Sometimes I can inhabit a painfully shy British girl, or whatever it might be. I'm able to step into these other parts of myself. I feel like, as long as I keep doing that in my career, and I keep tapping into different parts of the human condition, that's all I ask for.

I've been fortunate in that I've been able to have that balance as an actress to be able to do the wild, fun action movies and also be allowed to do the dramas. Hopefully, if I'm able to keep that balance, I'd love to always try to do both.

I don't see myself as one type of actor. When you get one role, you start to get cast in that role for awhile because that's what people have seen you do, and have hopefully seen you do it successfully. And so, it becomes an easier thing to see you as, for casting directors and directors, and they start to think of you as that particular person or type of character. But, for me, I'm just an actor, first and foremost. The actors I respect are the real character actors, who are the real chameleon actors that completely change from role to role.

I really like people who can do both drama and comedy and not some like middle of the road do both drama and comedy. I'm not talking about some guy who does these bland dramedies all the time. I'm talking about people that have done heavy drama and who have done heavy comedy.

I'm not a massive fan of just playing myself on screen. If you can play lots of different characters, that's fun. As long as the material is good, that's what the attraction is for me.

There was a time when I was like, 'I'm a dramatic actor,' 'I'm a comedian'... There's no line anymore. You have to be able to cross over.

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.

One of the things I love, more than anything, is jumping around and playing lots of different parts. I love the variety of playing different characters.

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 don't really have any limitations for what I want to do, as an actor.

The main fun of being an actor is that you get to bounce around to a lot of different worlds.

I want to be a well-rounded, versatile performer.

To go from playing a character that was so self-assured, so mature beyond her years, and so kick-ass and ruthless to someone who's quite normal is interesting.

You can't really judge an actor's abilities by their career, because the business is going to pigeonhole people into whatever turns a profit, and no artist is less in charge of how their work is presented than an actor, the appeal of Vince was that within a great naturalism, he can convey fierce intelligence, complex emotion, and a real warmth married to a real edge, strength and vulnerability and danger and humor. There are essential contradictions at work that makes him fascinating to watch.

As much as you know it, and you know the method, you can pretty much do what you want. No idea is going to be shot down. You just put it in the garbage later. You have to say the lines in many different ways. So they have a lot of material to work.

The reason I trained so hard in school was so that I could be versatile and play any character. With all these in my bag, I'm like a chameleon. I always tell other young actors to go to school, or at least watch movies to learn as much as you can.

I want to do drama - no one really sees that. People just think I'm the funny guy and I can't do anything else, and that's just not true.

It's nice getting to play a different version of yourself. You sign on for a show and think you're just going to play one character for however many years, so it's nice, for an actor, to have a little bit of fun.

I personally just want to do as many different things as I can do, whether it's comedy, drama, science fiction, horror, narrator... You've got a documentary, I've got a voice. Animated films. Big films, small films.

I consider myself a character actress, and that's working out. I'm getting chances to do things. I like the process - I don't want to pretend I'm something other than what I am.

My instinct is to keep people guessing. I think as an actor your greatest strength is your versatility, I suppose. The blanker the canvas, the easier it is to project the illusion of a character onto it. I think there are many actors who do that very successfully.