I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man.
The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually a press agent, actor, director, producer, leading man; and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude, but true.
As an actor, I felt I couldn't compete. I wasn't as cute as the leading man; I wasn't as brilliant as Robin Williams.
I don't even think of myself as particularly good looking, and not at all a typical kind of Hollywood leading man sort of actor.
Let me put it this way: if I am the leading man of the film, and the film-maker is asking me to support him in a certain aspect so as not to burden the budget of the film, I will do whatever I can to support his vision.
It's the unusual leading man. Most of the Hollywood leading men are powerful and capable and strong, heroes. He has this vulnerability, he's fragile, he struggles to find a way to live from day to day that we can identify with, that we can understand.
I'm a character actor, but I look like a leading man.
I think I'll get a little more interesting small parts and see if I can really... I guess you don't have to have the pressure on you compared to when you're a leading man in a film.
I know I may never emerge as a leading man.
I was never a leading man. I've always been in the outer concentric circles in the company, being a character actor, which is a good place to be. It gives you that diversity.
I don't really think there's much difference between a character actor and a leading man besides aesthetics.
I've never had any delusions about being a leading man, and it's not sour grapes to say that in the best films that I've always enjoyed, the cliched leading man type isn't a part of the picture.
Although I can be a leading man, you wouldn't look at me and go, 'He's a leading man.'
It is intensely frustrating. The longer you live, the more interesting life gets, and yet many of the parts involve carrying trays and putting lamb chops down in front of the leading man.
I always wanted to be a leading man!
But obviously you don't want to just be the guy who comes in and sort of spices up every movie. So yeah, definitely moving into more of a leading man role would be great, but on my own terms.
In the years since I worked with John Hughes, there were many years where I literally had hundred of doors slammed in my face because I wasn't that kid anymore, and I wasn't a character actor, and I wasn't a leading man, and I wasn't whatever Hollywood was looking for.
I'm not a leading man; I don't think I've got the face of a leading man, and I don't think, ever in my life, someone will cast me in the role of a leading man.
I was told that if I wanted to be a leading man in Hollywood, I couldn't possibly be thought of as gay.
When I first got out to Hollywood, they were pushing me for sitcoms, and I didn't really have an interest in them. I wanted to do films and slowly worked that way. And then it became, I guess, this curse of the leading man.
Nobody ever pegged James Gandolfini for a leading man. Least of all James Gandolfini.
'Leading man' just means people want to see you and assume that you can hold a film, carry a movie.
It's harder in the States. I'm much more inclined to get offered things that are a lot straighter and heavier and dramatic. And they go by looks, too. If you look like a leading man, then that's what they will consider you for.
I'm not built like a leading man.
I've certainly played those leading man or male juvenile roles, where you're not supposed to make people laugh.
I was only a leading man for a minute; now I'm a character actor.
Being a leading man can come in many different forms.
My first Hindi film as a leading man was Mahesh Bhatt's 'Saaransh,' which immediately established me as someone who knows the craft.
I think my wife has always been aware, whatever country we have been in, of my dramatic leading man status; a little too dramatic she would probably say.
I try to stay consciously away from the roles of the girl who throws herself at the leading man, because I've done it a lot and I want to move on. I ticked that box.
I don't know - the whole leading man, I don't buy it.
I haven't gotten to do the leading man thing, so I would love to do that!
It's weird but I've never really been the type to have fixations on the leading man actor. I've always been drawn more to the rock star. I love a guy on the microphone commanding an audience.
I'm not a conventional leading man at all and have no wish to be.
I have played characters where I haven't been absorbed - you know, what I call a typical film leading man role where you just have to look gorgeous and be attractive and charming. It bores me. I like a bit of dirt, a bit of sand in the oyster.
