Screen is satisfying because it's so technical and mysterious. It's like playing roulette: you get a script, you think it's either great or naff, but you have no idea how it will really turn out. On stage, you are your own editor - and you get brief moments of grace, where suddenly you feel free.
When I was a kid, I wrote to the BBC, and the producers sent me a huge package through the post with 'Doctor Who' scripts. I'd never even seen a script and couldn't believe that they actually wrote this stuff down. It sort of opened a door.
Right before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didn't read a single script, and I wrote a film. I felt like I needed to do something that I had control over, as an artist, and also just do something where I felt like I had some control over my life, as just a human, out in the world.
I like doing Marathi films. I am not too keen on Hindi TV shows. It's very tough to get Hindi films, but if a good script and role comes up in future, I will surely pick it up.
On an animated television series, you pretty much read the script as written. Whereas on an animated feature, you'll sometimes record the same scene multiple times over the course of a year as the filmmakers continue to tweak that part of the movie.
I think intelligence basically can be in a way defined by the possibility of having two opposite ideas living together and at the same time functioning. That's why I think a smart script has two things living in the same place, and they're absolutely contradictory.
Quite often, I'll be sent a script for a movie. And I find that I like it, so I say I'll do it. But then they rewrite it for me. They make it quirky. Odd. I find that rather annoying. I call it Walkenising.
I think maybe one reason why ventriloquists are looked down on is because it's very difficult to be funny. I think what happens is that people get a dummy, they learn the technique of ventriloquism, they memorize the script, they think they're in show business.
Twitter is so short, it's safe. I don't want my bosses to be like, 'Hey, your script is due and we saw you wrote four blog pages.'
For someone who works in theatre, the rehearsal is where you discover everything. It is where magic happens, where the script enters you and becomes part of you.
We start 'The Butler' in June and that's incredibly exciting for me because I get to work with the amazing Forest Whitaker again. It's a phenomenal script and a great, great role - I play his son. Oprah Winfrey is his wife and my mother. My character is a radical civil rights activist.
House was the first film where I had no influence on the script. I had to buy the script with the game rights.
I've learnt that I've had the best results from just trying to be me, trying to make a movie or TV show I want to see or write a script I want to read, and that's really all I can offer - being authentic.
It's been a lot of fun from script to script to get inside the mythology of 'Grimm.' We've been given a lot of freedom to explore the mythology as well as the backstories and interpersonal connections of the characters.
I'm the only one responsible for the choices I make and the opportunities I get. When you read the script, you don't know how it's going to shape up. You just know what you've been narrated.
When I read both pilots for 'Breaking Bad' and the 'Michael J. Fox Show,' I turned to my husband in real life, and I'm like, 'That is an amazing script.'
When a script moves me, I find that I immediately understand a character. Of course not completely, but I do understand.
I was 15 when I read the script for 'Earth to Echo.' I thought it was amazing, and I couldn't think of turning it down. It's awesome for a kid from Brooklyn to have an opportunity to be on the big screen. And I had a great experience learning what the movie business is like. So, I'm glad I did it.
I usually just try to do whatever's on the page because I've done research before - including a lot of analysis - but you end up with conflicting data. To me, the script is king.
I had a moment where I wrote a movie script, and it was my first movie job, and I was very excited to do it, and my only goal was really not to get fired off of it.
They are just really stupid people in Hollywood. You write them a script, and they say they love it, they absolutely love it. Then they say, 'But doesn't it need a small dog, and an Eskimo, and shouldn't it be set in New Guinea?' And you say, 'But it is a sophisticated romantic comedy set in Paris.'
'Looper' was a wonderful script. Rian Johnson is the real deal and a really talented filmmaker.
I really wanted to do 'Modern Family,' and I really liked the script, and I liked the people.
I sold my first script when I was 21 - this kids' adventure movie that never got made. I just bought that one back, actually. I'm pretty psyched about it.
I really don't act. I just live what George and I are doing. It has to make some sort of sense to me, or it won't ring true. No matter what the script says, there's no audience and no footlights and no camera for me. There's no make-believe. It's for real.
I would be sad if it ended now. It's been the best job I've had by a long shot, especially creatively because the writing is so good. Every week I get the script and I laugh out loud and get excited for the different stuff we get to do.
I have moments when I'll stare at a script and say, 'I don't know what I'm doing!' But then I push myself into that feeling because I think panic is important.
As for tweeting and texting: impassioned discussions, particularly when they're intimate, don't work in abbreviated script messages. No relationship should begin or end in 140 characters.
My priority is the script. Get me a good script, and I will sign the movie. I think I should leave the casting up to the experts!
I take a script and mull over it and underline the bits I want to emphasize. When I go to the set, I know exactly what I want to do.
When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies.
We have a rule: if you're killing off a series regular, you have to tell them first. If you're killing off a person temporarily, you have to warn them before the script comes out.
I love Marlon Brando and James Dean. That was when it was all about the star and the script. Nowadays, everything has to be action-packed.
I look forward to every script that comes down the pike.
Far too often, I read a script where the girls are the girlfriend or the set dressing.
Hopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn't going to work.