Quotes About Persona

There is something about my aura or essence, or whatever, that draws the ex-wife characters to me. I don't seek them out, but people tend to think of me for that particular archetype, or whatever you want to call it, and I don't mind it. I think there is a strength to it.

I don't want to be just seen as a character, because that can get exhausting after a while.

There's two Michaels: there's, like, my Michael. And the Michael that everyone else sees. Michael the entertainer.

Everyone has a private self and a public self.

I like to play the guy that has no self-awareness.

People think my name is Morpheus. Many times, people will say to me, 'Morpheus!' and I will complete the sentence by saying, 'is not my name!'

I could not separate myself off stage from myself on stage, as so many actors can.

I became acutely aware of how important it is to separate the difference between who you are and who the character you're playing is.

I do a lot of serious stuff, but I'm not a very serious guy.

I've been Austin almost half my life. In almost every public setting, that's why I'm there - to be Austin Aries.

It's difficult to get away from the shadow of a TV character.

You walk with a different air if you're wearing something sharp.

My name doesn't exactly shout 'babyface.'

I'm aware that, from the outside, this looks like I've got quite an ego.

I was the bad guy, the NBA bad guy.

I'm not going to do anything out my way to try to get somebody to watch me because I want to act a buffoon. I want to build a character that I want my kids to look up to. It's OK to be the bad guy when it's time to be the bad guy, but to live and be the bad guy all day, every day? It's like, 'No, come on, man, you're making us look bad.'

The public likes me as a bad guy and I'm going to go on being one just as long as I can.

I'm a really evil person on TV! It's way more fun to be the bad guy.

Since I got into acting, I always wanted to play a bad guy.

I didn't want to be that guy they always talked about being a bad guy.

In general, I think writing characters, no one is 100 percent good or bad, and certainly, the bad characters never think they're bad themselves. Even the worst characters don't feel like they're bad guys on the inside.

I'd really like to play bad guys or guys that have something a little bit off about them. And I get to do that periodically.

In my career, I've been lucky to do the bad guys that are more interesting, where the audience wants to spend more time with them and get to know them. That's what I'm always looking for and trying to do.

Because of the way I look, I tend to play bad guys.