Because of the fact I look a lot younger than I really am, I think, I end up getting these girl-next-door roles. I mean, I'm not a Gemma Arterton type as far as I can tell.
I want to steer away from the stereotypes that Latina women are categorized in. I feel like there are so many more opportunities for us. I like going out for those roles that says 'open ethnicity.'
Over the years, I've had a few roles where I've had to take my shirt off. I've kind of been the 'shirt-off' guy.
I have done good roles. I feel good about myself.
A lot of the time, unfortunately for women, there's not a lot of complex roles. I don't mean complex like tortured or whatever. I mean complex like there's more going on with them than, 'I'm a mom.'
Almost any word can be drafted to serve as a verb, even words we think of as eternal and unchanging, stuck in their more traditional roles.
There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.
Having done something like The Thorn Birds gives you enormous longevity. You can keep picking and choosing the roles for a bit longer.
I was reading through endless junk scripts that were being sent my way. Typically the roles were to play his wife or his girlfriend - leading roles for women were few and far between.
What I really want to do is create great roles for women. And I'm not talking Nicholas Sparks romance. I think women's roles have gotten ghettoized in these sort of places... I'm thinking women in action, comic books, or like the Tony Soprano of women. We need some complex roles.
I have no specific ideas in mind of what I will or won't do; it's all about the roles.
I've been fortunate to play many different types of characters thus far. However, I really enjoy playing roles that are different than who I am personally. You can have these small fantasy worlds where you can be people you would otherwise never get to be: a doctor, a lawyer, a ruthless business woman.
I want to spark ideas and conversations and inspire people to take active roles in their communities, relationships and their well-being.
There's lots of incredible roles out there that I'd love to tackle, but there's a select group of actors I find myself gravitating towards, like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Sean Penn or Daniel Day-Lewis - real transformational actors.
I have always been ambitious about getting a U.S. role, and if ever there is some frustration, it is still encouraging to get close to big roles because it implies there is somewhere to go.
After that, I was offered lots of lesbian roles, but I didn't want them because I'd already played the best there was.
It's interesting going between small parts and then bigger roles where you carry the film. If the writing is good, and if the people involved have integrity, then you'll do it, even if it's only five minutes on screen.
As a kid, I'd go into the bathroom when I was having a tantrum. I'd be in the bathroom crying, studying myself in the mirror. I was preparing for future roles.
I know I can handle dramatic roles, but I don't think I should have to play a young mother on crack to prove it.
I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by the roles I take.
When you're guest-starring, it's very nice, but you're there very briefly, and it's right there in the name: You're a guest. It's very hard to get a real sense of belonging. With recurring and regular roles, at least you have a sense that this is a home and a steady place.
I think the serious roles impact people the most.
So there's no such thing as one too many this, one too many that. I remember, you're reminding me of early in my career, somebody said to me: why are you taking so many roles as a policeman.
Age is the first limitation on roles that I've ever had to encounter, and I hit that awhile ago.
I've always had the same principle for choosing roles, which is to try and make movies that I would pay to see. As I get older, that's meant different things.
There are not many roles where women are really active.
Yeah, I do feel badly sometimes, not for whose coming up and getting roles I'm not right for anymore but the people I compete with, who range from Uma Thurman on up.
I don't want to do panel games or adverts. I really like challenges. I always get roles as an art teacher or a photographer. In the future I want to play something like a mugger/assassin/pastry chef.
I am obsessed with the idea of transformation. I have been very lucky so far to play very different roles - and I would love for that to continue.
I'm not going to change the world overnight. It's one person at a time, and hopefully they're people in positions of power who can help people get in those roles and really, truly embrace colorblind casting.
For years, it's driven me crazy that women don't have better roles, especially in comedies. I know so many funny women but I always felt... misogynist streak is too strong a term - but a dismissiveness.
I watch comedies most of the time. That's what I gravitate toward. But I think the kinds of roles people see me in are sort of the opposite of that. I'm not really sure why.
Around age 38, there was a slight change to my voice, and very much in the center. That made it possible to start thinking about certain roles: Guillaume Tell, Romeo, Edgardo. These roles require a fuller center.
I want to try as many different roles as I can. I want to do everything.
I try to explain to people that you get the roles that are right when they're right. If you have a nerd character but you're kind of a cool guy, you're probably not going to get the nerd part. The nerd is going to get the nerd part. You know, someone like me.
Different roles call for different aspects or different faces of Sterling to emerge.
