I've always been a believer in research. It's great to have an instinctual human reaction to a character, too, of course, but it has to be countered with knowledge and understanding.
I want to know exactly how the first few measures are going to go, and the rough shape of a movement or the whole piece and its essential character.
True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
You want to be challenged, so you feel like you want to get up and wrestle with the character or enjoy the character - especially with a TV show, because you know you could be doing it for a long time, so you want to make sure it's something you really enjoy.
Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.
I do not believe that with a fictional character you can force yourself too far away from yourself. There has to be some of you in it.
If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted.
Privacy is important to me. But it's not just about sticking two fingers up and saying I don't want anyone to know my business. It's an artistic choice. I think that for any actor to convince their audience that they have completely inhabited a character requires a certain level of anonymity.
One of my favorite albums in the world is Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska.' Each song has this very distinct character who has something profound to say.
I have this old-man character named Glary Oldman. His apartment was on fire, but he was stubborn about leaving because he didn't want to leave all his stuff. I have a character called Berle, who lost 19 pounds, and now he's 600 pounds and very happy about it.
I have a rule: I will not alter the basic history of a real-life character to suit our fictional needs in a big way.
Respect and a gentlemanly character - those are marks of a Nebraskan.
Do you know how hard it is to play a character where you're always in heels? Oh, my goodness!
I think Ryan Gosling is a really great actor who's meticulous about his work. And I'd love to have the guts that Johnny Depp has to actually go outside the box on a character. When he plays a character, he plays it in a way that nobody else would.
For film and theater, you know how the story starts; you know how the story ends. With TV, you don't. It's literally like living real life in character.
I see myself as a character actor, and I've always been drawn to playing characters that are different from myself because acting is escapism for me. I've never been that comfortable playing people that are like me.
I can't really write anything without knowing the ending. I don't know how people do that. Even with my superhero stuff, I have to know at least where I want to take the characters and what the ending of my story with them will be. I just can't structure stories or character arcs and stuff without knowing the endpoint.
It's a dream to be able to just play a multi-faceted character.
No, you don't have to start your play with a premise. You can start with a character or an incident, or even a simple thought. This thought or incident grows, and the story slowly unfolds itself. You have time to find your premise in the mass of your material later. The important thing is to find it.
I love the trilogy form. I like the idea that you can establish a character in book one. And then in the second part, you can take the characters down to their darkest point. And then in the third part, you have total freedom either to give them redemption - or just to kill them.
White House cultures inevitably reflect the president's character. Jimmy Carter is a thoroughly honest, good person. So was his White House.
Being a director is almost like being another sort of character, but you're out of view.
I don't like to do too much psychological research because it might turn a character into a patchwork.
You learn by playing a great team, and I'm talking about character things, not hockey technique.
Anthony Mackie in 'The Hurt Locker' is everything an actor can hope to be. So rock steady in his portrayal that you immediately forget every performance he may have previously given, and focus only on the character in front of you.
What I like and find liberating in dialogue comedy is that the characters, and what they say, are not me. These are fleeting thoughts and observations and not presented as truths but as something that illuminates the character and the dynamic between the characters. This kind of dialogue is thesis and antithesis - and we never get to a synthesis.
Generally, I think most of my writing tends to have some kind of magical element to it. That's the way I can access the emotional life of the character.
I love series television because it's so much fun to have that much opportunity to paint the character.
Our Nation is in great need of young men and women of character to lead in every arena of our society.
American exceptionalism is the recurring character in the nation's narrative.
The Reformation did not directly touch the question of the true character of God's church.
The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
My goal has been to be a great character actor.
I have zero idea of what my involvement with 'The Lying Game' is going to be. I'm a character that may or may not be permanently involved.
Sometimes when you're doing fantasy, that's the most important thing, is to be a blank space, because the last thing you want to do ever as an actor is judge yourself or the character or the movie that you're in. You want to just play the moment as best you can. Juilliard helped me do that.
Most of my films have a lot of character development and exploration, whereas in most horror movies the characters are just cardboard.
