Quotes About Casting

My very first role was the character of Barbara Winslow in the movie 'Marmaduke.' Up until that point, I had only done commercials. I had never done a guest star role or a series, and yet they cast me!

The last person who was brave enough to cast me was Rahul Bose in 'Everybody Says I'm Fine.' He gave me no choice. He is my dearest friend. I confided in him about how disillusioned I was by the business of cinema and stardom. He offered me a role.

I love thinking of movie stars who could play the characters in the books I write.

Stars work because of familiarity. They fill theatres because audiences know who they are. There is a brand equity. But there are films strong enough to not need stars, or films that should not be made with stars at all, where only fresh faces will do. So I make the decisions accordingly.

I'm big and a lot of the stars are smaller so if you're big and mean looking, you play bad guys. After Blade Runner, I was the meanest guy in Hollywood.

Well, I want to do The Music Man. I think it's an amazing opportunity, but I think that they are probably looking at major movie stars right now, and I don't blame them.

I can't even begin to tell you how many casting couches I was attacked on. Not just by casting people, but by stars.

There are certain storylines I shouldn't have done, there are certain actors I shouldn't have cast - guest stars, I mean.

I think the reason you use an actor is if they are right for the role. Most of the high-profile stars tend to be good actors. That's probably what led to their fame. So if they are right for the movie, you can certainly use them. But I don't want to, not at all. Stardom and Hollywood overpower the ideas and the film.

For a while, I was only being sent fat-girl parts. Seriously? Sometimes I feel like I'm making some kind of radical statement because I'm a size 6.

There are instances where, in my mid to late 20s, I very often found myself going for roles that they didn't want to cast me in, because I'd done good work, but in a producer's eyes, I wasn't high enough status. So I lost out.

Such a big part of this business is rejection. Each time that you get rejected, a big part of it is just staying positive - even if you don't get the role, it's still giving you practice. I love being able to take direction and talk with the casting directors in the room.

One of the things I learned very early on was that if you cast the show correctly, and if you've created the right energy in the room, the solution is also in the room. The solution doesn't necessarily come from someone, but if everybody is working in a very steadfast and rigorous way, then everything you're looking for is in the room.

I think you have to kind of feel like you're pretty handsome and cool to be able to step into an audition for some kind of lead hero, and that's just not how I look.

I stepped in for Nicole Kidman in 'Dogville' when she left that film.

They put their feelers out for all the names and then they'll cast you up to the point a name steps up, and then it doesn't matter how much they love you, there's a certain marketing value on that name, and there you go.

People told me I couldn't kill Nicholson, so I cast him in two roles and killed him off twice.

When you talk to people in retrospect, they always say the casting was a no-brainer, but nothing really is. You have to have so many things line up. I'm very grateful that it worked out.

It's so easy to make an Asian person the doctor, the lawyer, the smart kid in school. What's harder is challenging the norm and hiring Asian actors to play your Average Joe.

Normally movies have the same people they use over and over for everything. It's called typecasting. They don't like to take chances. They'll go with the guy they had before.

I randomly went to a casting session in my hometown in North Carolina, and the casting director introduced me to my manager. I really lucked into it!

I'm not dangerous, but I have a sharp nose. I will probably be playing bad guys forever because of my face.

When I first heard 'Robocop' was going to be remade. I said, 'Yeah, that's interesting. I'll probably watch that at some point, but I'm not interested at all to be in it.'

Generally, nowadays, I'm using my own accent because casting directors want it; they like that.