As a costume designer, I first try to figure out what the character's economic situation is and hit the stores they'd shop.
Character, to me, is the life's blood of fiction.
There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.
The first night was awful because I was so afraid, and I was never more afraid because it was going out of my character to be outgoing and to be vulnerable and to be out there and onstage. My hands were sweaty and I couldn't swallow, and I drank a bottle of wine to calm my nerves.
The more limitations you put on a character, often times the better a character you'll make them, the more interesting the story becomes because the character can't simply wave a hand and make something happen. They have to work within the framework.
Perhaps because my background is theatrical, I have a great affinity with the classics. Hamlet has always been a character of great interest to me and a character I would really love to play. Or a character in a Tennessee Williams play, maybe Tom in 'The Glass Menagerie.'
I feel there's something about becoming a character that helps people understand themselves.
When I did 'Jump Street', I created that character; it was all me. I walked in and was just me. I could get out of bed and walk on set and be dressed.
Basically, I think that there are some characters that you can just allow the truth of your character as a human being in your real life to come through.
You can't just trust to luck; you have to really listen to what that character is telling you.
My father is a man of impeccable character who has worked tirelessly for the United Nations for many years. His integrity is beyond reproach.
Thing is, I'm a funny actor, but I'm not good at being funny. I'm going to ramble for a second: I'm an actor who can make things funny in the moment, like in stakes or in circumstances or out of character.
When I read a script, the important thing is that I can connect in some way with that character and have some idea from what his story is that I can tell that story too, because that's all acting is, is storytelling.
It's rare that a character film is easy to fund.
There's a character that I play onstage, and I can't let him loose in the supermarket when I'm buying my beans on toast.
Personally, I feel that if you shoot off 200,000 rounds, and your lead character pulls out a pistol and never gets hit, there's a sense of jeopardy that's lost. It becomes a little less exciting when things don't make sense.
I'd be more interested in doing a smaller, character driven thing, rather than another action picture.
I think it's ridiculous when a character wakes up in the morning with lipstick and foundation and contour and fake eyelashes and hair done.
With any character I play, I gravitate to the juxtaposition and humor.
Note too that a faithful study of the liberal arts humanizes character and permits it not to be cruel.
I'm really shy with my acting when it's off, because the camera gives me an excuse to be in character, whereas otherwise I would just feel like an idiot.
I want every character be an outsider in some way.
In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.
I think I'm a character actress at heart, and I think my work is character work for the most part. I'm not the lead of any films - which is not to say that I wouldn't ever want to be; it is just to say that hasn't been my path.
There's no need for a female character that does things like a male character; that's not what makes interesting female characters in my view.
In the Emperor's New Clothes, they got a different celebrity to do each voice. They drew up a picture of each character and then each actor wrote their own part.
I'm tired of defending my character. I am what I am. What you see is what you get.
When I was young, I was offered my first recording contract in 1971 and was offered quite a bit of money if I would change my character and be a '70s version of Cher.
As a former reporter, I wrote 'The Scarecrow' quickly - I didn't have to think about what the character would do the way I do with Harry Bosch.
I discovered that writing was very nice indeed when I was very young, and I never changed. I don't think my style has changed very much at all - though I hope what I say is a bit more interesting. It's about getting to know a character and loving them, I think.
What's fun for me is to try new things and push myself and not get stuck in one genre or another, or stuck with one character or another.
I know there are lots of positives in the evolution of technology, but I also think it will be responsible for the end of a unique character, of a specific kind of geographical culture. The world is getting so small, and mass production is getting so big. Everything is in danger of becoming the same.
I grew up with 'Jane Eyre,' reading it at school, and it's one of those, I think, for a lot of women, a lot of girls, it's the iconic story and so many girls relate to Jane Eyre and her character.
Whereas Schaeffer and Henry were working like samplers, their idea was to capture those sounds which couldn't be serially calibrated because they were too complex in character.
My sense of myself is that I'm a character actor, and character actors are ready, willing, and able to do anything, to be totally different from themselves. That's my job, to be ready. I'm some kind of first responder.
I guess there's a vulnerability in seeing a female character trying to get out of something really drastic.