Playing a character who becomes a Buddhist was a great experience.
Practically every movie that shows the pope or even a bishop as a character, and in much of western literature of the last 300 or 400 years, these are portrayed as awful figures.
You can really help support a character if you understand the setting. So for that reason I generally write about Philadelphia.
I just like to switch things up all the time. Like when it comes to singing, I try to find a different character for each song.
When I act, I try to understand the character, why she's behaving like that.
It's hard to get lost in a scene, to get into a character when everyone's standing around you on the set.
You try to get to know your character as best as you can before you start filming - what's written and not written.
Well, if you're writing a thriller, you have to have your character in mortal jeopardy on page 1 or it's not a thriller.
An Emraan Hashmi film has come to guarantee certain ingredients: An intense, grey central character, a beautiful girl - if he gets lucky, then two - couple of kisses, a few bold scenes, fabulous music and a climatic twist.
The truth is, everything ultimately comes down to the relationship between the reader and the writer and the characters. Does or does not a character address moral being in a universal and important way? If it does, then it's literature.
I've done some TV and I've done a lot of theater, obviously, and the last character I played on Broadway was a very fast-talking broad. I'm used to learning material and words.
There is a difference between legitimate issues of character - someone's behavior - and the issue of whether someone who has done something wrong in their life, now because of those mistakes, can't talk about what is the right thing to do.
For me, it's nice to have a character who can never find love and have that be the running theme, but I think when you open the door to a story line about relationships, you open the door to another realm of comedy.
I'm very vain about my performance. I want to give as honest a performance as I can. But I'm not so worried about being regarded as beautiful when I'm playing a character.
I still wear my trousers baggy as I did in my teens. But in a different way. I've loved trainers since my youth - limited edition, vintage, whatever. You could recognise people and judge their character through their trainers. I'm a Nike man.
I always wanted to be a character actor rather than the poster boy that they tried to make me 100 years ago. An actor has a degree of responsibility to change for the audience, to give them something new each time, to surprise and not bore them.
A bad laugh is a laugh for the sake of a laugh that's out of character.
You can't make a character do something they wouldn't do.
I thought it'd be interesting to play an off-centre character who doesn't have to be pretty.
I don't have a classical-music mentality. I haven't been taught that way, and it doesn't fit my character, either.
I'm still fighting really hard to get any role I get. If it's comedy, I go for the laughs. And if it's drama, I try to tell the truth, and try to play the real stakes of whatever scenario the character's in.
I think people, especially in the Muslim community, are rightly cautious any time you hear, 'Oh, there's going to be a Muslim character.'
But the more we search the Scriptures, the more we perceive, in this doctrine, the fundamental truth of the gospel - that truth which gives to redemption its character, and to all other truths their real power.
Every life of a character is within a context. If I write detached from a social and political background, my story looks like a soap opera where everybody is indoors, not working and living off their emotions.
I want to play a character with grey shades.
I will say that adapting a character like Da Vinci really wasn't that dissimilar from doing Batman or Superman. Because all three of these guys are really iconic figures, and yes, Da Vinci was historical, but there's clearly been a lot of mythmaking about him, and a lot of things have been attributed to him that may or may not have happened.
I had wanted to be a regular character on a series for a while. 'The Brady Bunch' was an answer to a prayer.
I think that Trinity's just the greatest character that I could ever play. I don't expect to ever play another woman that wonderful. I have a lot of Trinity in me, for sure.
I don't know if there is a gene for comedy, but my dad was a very funny man. He just didn't know it. He was a naturally funny character, and when my brother and I would laugh at things he said and did, he would say, 'What do you think is so funny?'
There's no doubt West Point impacted who I am... It has an enormous emphasis, not only on military aspects, but character development. Whether it's the honor code, or the interactions you have, both with the cadet leadership and the academy leadership, every place you are is a character test.
I would have played any character in an Alexander Payne movie.
One of the things that impacted me the most was in the 12th grade. I just assumed I would get the lead in the musical. Well, I didn't get it; I got the second lead, and I was devastated... my mom said something like, 'Often the supporting character is better.'
The Russians were responsible for the Chekov character. They put in 'Pravda' that, 'Ah, the ugly Americans are at it again. They do a space show, and they forget to include the people who were in space first.' And I said, 'My God, they're right.'
Stage is so important because it teaches me how to convey character with words - how to convey how a character reacts by the way they appear on stage. I can usually tell a playwright from someone who has never written for the stage. Did the character work? Did the dialogue reveal who the character is?
I always find filming stressful. I get very caught up thinking about my character - 'Am I doing it right? Should it be done this way?'
I was only a leading man for a minute; now I'm a character actor.
