Quotes About Casting

When I was in high school, the drama teacher picked me to play Iago in 'Othello.'

I don't know what's wrong with me - I don't know why I only get picked to play strange characters!

I've been really picky about the sort of characters that I want to represent.

When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like 'Bird,' I use 90% black people.

I don't know why I get cast in a lot of period pieces. Stephen Fry told me that I had a face for period, that I look like someone from 1920.

I love casting against type and doing things you wouldn't expect, because I think you get more interesting performances that way. Hollywood loves to pigeonhole people, and there's nothing an actor loves more than to do something different.

You can get pigeonholed in Hollywood and people think of you in a certain way.

I think any actor in their right mind is afraid of getting pigeonholed.

Once you're sort of pigeonholed into something, it's quite difficult to get out of it. I have no aversion to playing a gay character again, but it would definitely have to be the right role.

I wasn't the first choice for the role of Danny Tanner. Betty White was. Not true, but there was another actor whom they had shot the pilot with.

NBC's pilot season of 1994 is legendary in the business. In a world where failure is commonplace, we midwifed the birth of both 'Friends' and 'ER'. While 'ER' came essentially out of the blue, we'd been casting around for a 'Friends'-like show for some time at the network.

Normally, you cast a pilot, and you have to make compromises about being political about who you cast.

After 'Entourage,' it completely opened up my casting within the industry. People saw me for a lot of roles that I hadn't been seen for before. Older roles. I went out this pilot season for a lot of lawyers and doctors. And cops - which I haven't quite mastered yet; I find that quite difficult.

The most important decision you can make as a showrunner when you're doing a pilot is who's in it and who's directing it.

We were filming in America and I noticed we were casting shadows like Walnut Whips! The sensible thing to do was go on a diet, so we started rewriting recipes and we're better cooks because of it.

I wanted to look cute, hot and sexy all at the same time in 'Bigg Boss!' How else will the Bollywood producers cast me in their films as the lead actress?

'Drive' came to me because the casting director knew my manager and called and said, 'You've always talked to me about Albert wanting to play the heavy. I think he should read this.' My ears just perked up.

Hollywood, they make up these Latinos because they have a certain physical type or a certain name or whatever... It's not that easy. It's like me wanting to do a movie with an American actor, and I say, 'Hey listen, I have either Johnny Depp or Carrot Top.'

I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and then I got this call from a casting director in Los Angeles. She remembered me from something years before, and she called my mom wanting me to audition for this thing.

I had a role in 'Crossroads' when I was about 21, and then I went on to perform in 'Small Change' and then 'Piaf' in the Donmar Warehouse, London, and it was when I was there that some casting directors spotted me.

I hooked up with Warner Bros, and I was dying to play Ensign Pulver in the 'Mr. Roberts' series, and I didn't get the part. Instead they cast the with Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch in 'F Troop.'

When you watch a film like 'Warning,' you would realize that it can't be made with stars.

Playing the greatest warrior in the seven kingdoms, that's absolutely no pressure. It didn't help, during the casting, the director kept saying, 'Remember, you're the most legendary swordsman ever.' I said, 'Great. I'll try and convey that in my four lines of dialogue.'

Like any other actor, my agent called me with an opportunity. It just so happens that the opportunity was the lead in 'Star Wars.'