Luckily, neither in my Tamil nor in my Telugu movies do I have roles that require exaggerated emoting.
Certain roles are more challenging than others, but I haven't come across one yet that I can't tackle.
If the opportunities are not being presented to me, I'm going to take the reins and do it. Brit Marling was not waiting for the phone to ring. The great roles are not there to be had. If you have an idea, do it.
I like roles of people who can overcome things because there's strength in that and an arc - and roles where they start in one place, and toward the end of the script they end up in a completely different place, so you've seen this growth and some humanity in the role.
I've been lucky enough to do a few roles where you get to be crazy and wild, put on contacts and different wigs and different hairpieces and dresses and outfits and embody the craziness of it all.
Despite what people say about my major film roles, I'm not a dull or monotonous woman searching for self-identity.
If you want to play the good roles, spend more time in in college and in acting class than you do in the gym, and you'll have the career you want.
There's an appetite for vigour in films. The camera loves a bit of movement. Movement is usually attached to younger people and men, and that's just the way it is. I think that it's a bitter pill to swallow, but it's a fact that there aren't going to be masses and masses of roles for older women because there isn't the audience for it.
I'm not in a position where I get to pick and choose roles. I usually go on auditions in long lines and embarrass myself in front of casting directors, and with a lump in my throat and my ears burning, I walk past reception and smirking actors as I go to the parking garage and go back on the highway.
I don't prepare for my roles. I don't watch movies to get inspired. I don't dig deep. I'll never be that type of actor, and I doubt that I ever will be.
I was playing 40-year-old women when I was 20. I didn't get considered for ingenue roles.
I follow the roles.
I am happy being able to play roles with people my age because once you do something really mature there is no turning back.
I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don't really say that I'm an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.
Of all the roles I've done on the stage, I'm partial to Cyrano de Bergerac.
I've certainly played those leading man or male juvenile roles, where you're not supposed to make people laugh.
I have roles in plays that I hope that I'll be able to do one day. I might be doing them at, like, the East Wilton Playhouse in wherever. But I think that Edie Falco... to get something even resembling her type of roles, that would be amazing.
Up until the time I was cast in 'Star Trek,' the roles were pretty shallow - thin, stereotyped, one-dimensional roles. I knew this character was a breakthrough role, certainly for me as an individual actor but also for the image of an Asian character: no accent, a member of the elite leadership team.
Over the centuries, religion has become institutionalized, and in the process encrusted with elaborate hierarchies, top-heavy bureaucracies, highly specialized roles and reflexive routines.
I came to the United States to see what would happen in 2000 after working for 20 years in Australia and asked my agent to look out for the nasty roles because I'd become famous for playing the nicest man in Australia. So I wanted to play bad guys.
I don't care about the size of the roles, or how they're marketed or billed or anything like that. I would love to be a part of stories that tell us about where we've come from, where we are, where we're going - with great directors.
One of the best ways to change is to act as if you are the person you want to become. When you behave as if you are a different person, you change on a very basic level - even your physiology changes. When actors and actresses perform, their body chemistry is altered by the roles they play.
When I started in the theater, I'd do plays by Shakespeare or Ibsen or Chekhov, and they all created great women's roles.
I think going into 'New Moon,' I knew the characters better. I knew the world better and I knew the actors who would be playing these roles. I had a sense of their rhythms and tones. 'Twilight' I was writing in a vacuum. We hadn't cast it yet.
The loveliest roles, for me, have a growth arc - a beginning, a middle, and an end - and I'm always grateful when I can find one of those emotional journeys.
I think a leader has many roles to play. So, you know, one role is that of incubating talent; the other is that of being a strategist. It's a very interesting job I've got.
Most people say I look mean, and because I play so many tough roles and because of my size and my martial arts background, they think I am, but I'm really not.
In every union roles are assumed, some traditional, some not. My husband used to pay his own bills, I used to call my own repairman. But as marriages progress, you surrender areas of your own competence, often without even knowing it.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough interesting acting roles in New Zealand to sustain a career.
I came here knowing nobody. I worked clubs as a singer and even the doors a few times before I landed some TV roles.
The roles for South Asians may have increased by a decent number but there has been a negligible change in the quality of these roles. We still have to fight stereotypes. Fortunately, I've had the priviledge of working with people who look beyond the color of your skin.
I like roles that bring the unexpected. Roles that may challenge the way people think about things and perceive things. And I like roles that reflect a reality.
I have been very fortunate to be able to work and get the opportunity to play different roles. It's nice to do big studio pictures and then work in Glasgow on films like 'Red Road' and then dress up as a vampire or an alien. I think that's why a lot of people are actors - the versatility.
I thank God I'm in a position where I can pick and choose - there are some roles I don't play.
I have a real taste for doing action roles. I starred in a movie called 'Blast,' which was my first action film, and I loved the fighting - I think I've got the build, the attitude and the look for it.
The truth of the matter is roles like James Bond are the ones that I look up to as probably the best roles ever to play. So that's probably my ultimate goal one day: to play James Bond.
