Quotes About Roles

You could say I'm a character actress. Or maybe a character actress who does peculiar, interesting lead roles. Does that make sense?

You could say I'm a character actress. Or maybe a character actress who does peculiar, interesting lead roles.

There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, 'Oh, you're playing yourself.' I guess it's kind of a compliment. Or people say, 'Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.' The work is to make it look effortless. That's the hard part.

It is women who have traditionally, historically been given non-human roles, perceived as simply the daughters of Eve, perceived as either Madonna or whore. And I think that it is the sexual revolution that plays one part in female emancipation.

The Screen Actors Guild numbers are frightening: Something like 90 percent of the roles are for men, 5 percent are for livestock and 5 percent are for women.

It's not at all a far jump to think that overall perceptions of gender - and what is and is not important in gender roles - would carry over from life to fiction.

It is very essential as an actor to be a perfectionist and have a knack for doing different roles over a period of time to keep their fans entertained.

I have played some wonderful leading roles on stage and had the whole 'China Beach' years where I really played a leading man on that. That was a fun change for a character actor. But I'm perfectly happy going back to building my gallery of memorable character roles.

I haven't had a lot of comedy come my way as a performer.

To others we are not ourselves but performers in their lives cast for a part we do not even know we are playing.

My goal was always to get better roles, and in my case, performing on stage really led to great opportunities. My breakthrough came when I did Calder Willingham's 'End as a Man' on stage and was spotted by Max Arnow, who'd been the casting chief for Columbia.

I have no idea what my draw is for science fiction. I hope they come to me because they like complicated women. But I've never played the Bionic Woman. In 'Sarah Connor' and 'Lost,' I am not the orchestrator of what happens. I've played quite peripheral people.

It is because we have not learned to regard men and women normally, in their own proper places, that we have conjured up a cluster of poetic notions about them.

I love Cate Blanchett. She's extremely classy and has this knack for taking on roles and being very, very strong, but also embedding vulnerability. She has this relatable quality. I like the path she chose.

I've always played different kinds of roles, and I probably played more vulnerable parts when I was really young.

I did things like Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait. I don't know what those films were about. The women I played in them were not very empowered.

It's about pursuing it rather than waiting to see what comes along. That's partly because I found myself getting typecast, as everyone does unless they pursue roles that are very different from what they've done before.

Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They're the cop or the waitress or whatever it is. You see them in the background.

I wake up and play a different person every day. Playing all these different characters and trying to figure out who your true authentic self is at the core of that as you're playing all these different roles, and man, that self-awareness starts to come into effect. And you start to see who you really are.

I auditioned for a one-act version of 'The Princess and the Pea' called 'The Ugly Duckling,' and I was cast as the King, starting a pattern of being cast in roles originally intended for men. I went to the first rehearsal, and I didn't get any laughs, and I choked and I quit. I walked away from it and joined the tennis team.

There was a time when 'Batman' really kept me from getting some pretty good roles, and I was asked to do what I figured were important features. However, Batman was there, and very few people would take a chance on me walking onto the screen. And they'd be taking people away from the story.

Some players need it and some don't. Some have a little too much confidence. But bench players, guys in secondary roles, just need a shot of confidence all the time.

I went to an open audition for 'Between the Canals,' and that was a big thing. I suddenly thought, 'Ah, yeah!' Then I started getting brought away to do roles. That's when I got taken seriously.

During college, in Los Angeles, I interned all over Hollywood. Development roles appealed to me; they were a perfect blend of business and creativity.