Quotes About Portrayal

When actors have the opportunity to play a larger-than-life icon - my wife did it with Tina Turner, and Jamie Foxx did it with Ray Charles - you have to make a decision how you go in. What do you start with? Where do you begin?

I believe how a character eventually turns out is completely attributable to an actor. Even with a meaty role, if I am enacting it as an accessory, I will look like an accessory.

Many people have this memory of traditional TV documentary-making that aims to portray pure reality, and I just don't see that as the only option.

I think TV has been a little bit irresponsible in how they portray these people because homicide detectives are not brooding, tortured souls who are stained with the stink of the city and who have blood on their hands. They are real, live people that are incredibly entertaining.

Playing a cop on TV and working closely with actual cops on set, I do think the media does a disservice to our first responders.

I think that for the most part, black people specifically have sort of been used as props in TV shows as a way to move story along or as a way to make things more entertaining.

Sometimes, you get portrayed the way you don't want to be portrayed.

As an actor, you can do what you want with your role. That's why they hire you; to take the role and make it real.

I think, first of all, every time you want to play somebody who is real is always challenging and always scary, because you are given a responsibility of someone's real life.

The delineation between the actor and his part is a practical matter. When the camera runs, you want the actor to be the character.

Every day I learn something new, and, you know, you go through life's experiences, and if you can bring every experience at some point somewhere in every drama or every story that you have to portray, you will come across an emotion or a feeling you have had some point in your life.

As an actor, if you want to explore something new inside you, you need to do something different that you don't do in your regular life. You need to think in a different way. It is my duty to think like the character that I am given and believe in his mindset; only then I will be able to portray it.

It's not just about learning the dialogue and facing the camera, you must somewhat live the role and not always be acting it.

I've been honoured to portray such intelligent and sophisticated roles.

The great irony was that, while I was being portrayed as a monster, I was in Khatmandu with my children, doing soup kitchens for Tibetan refugees, using all the money from my records to feed three hundred people a day, and working with monks connected to the Sammye Ling Buddhist centre in Scotland.

What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.

I am glad that I made my television debut with 'Perfect Pati,' a show that portrays a mother and her role as a mother-in-law in such a strong positive light.

The way Hollywood portrays mothers - you're either all good and saint-like, or you're all bad. And I think the real honesty of motherhood is not given a voice in movies. I miss that as an audience member.

Again, like I said, we're not trying to censor anyone. If you think drugs are cool, fine. Make that movie. We are not going to stop you, or try to stop you, but we would encourage other people to be a bit more responsible about their portrayal of drug usage.

Especially after the Twin Towers, we're so terrified of 'Arabic' people. And talk about stereotypical negative portrayals of people of certain groups, if you look at the portrayal of Arabic people in Hollywood films, it's just appalling. They've always been just the easiest of targets - along with native Africans and what have you.

'The Choirboys' is very much a product of its mid-1970s time, especially in its two-dimensional portrayals of cop groupies Ora Lee and Carolina Moon, but the energy of Wambaugh's newfound, blackly comedic voice is a revelation, a trap-door opening into all facets of a policeman's world.

When you're playing someone who really lived, you carry a burden, a burden to be accurate. But it's one that you have to let go of ultimately.

I think it's a star-making turn for Audrey Tautou. I can't imagine anyone else playing that role. Um, to me, is she Amelie, for better or for worse.

It was extremely difficult to suppress my emotions, because my character in' A Girl at My Door' goes through so many infuriating situations. It was a lonely process having to portray someone that acts tough but is deeply hurting inside and is unable to express that.