Quotes About Roles

Men are boys for such a long time and really don't start getting the great roles until they're in their mid-thirties. But then they've got a long time to do them, whereas for women, it's all about playing younger and younger and younger.

I've always played characters that were younger than myself.

Hollywood will accept actresses playing ten years older, but actors can play ten years younger.

One thing that's happened to me is I've been around a long time and I've played a lot of villains and so forth. I think it had to do with, well one thing is that I looked younger than I was for a long time. Now I think I'm suddenly starting to play people's father.

There's an appetite for vigour in films. The camera loves a bit of movement. Movement is usually attached to younger people and men, and that's just the way it is. I think that it's a bitter pill to swallow, but it's a fact that there aren't going to be masses and masses of roles for older women because there isn't the audience for it.

I took the role of Rochelle in 'Everybody Hates Chris,' and that was it. I was going to play mother roles all the time. Once you do one mother role, it's always a trickle down effect.

Television can be a little tricky in terms of finding roles that feel fully flushed out, which is why I love being in the theater so much, because the roles tend to be really on the page.

I have managed to get through that tricky turn into your 50s with two great roles. It is great to see characters for women of a certain age.

I don't know exactly how I end up with some of these roles. It mystifies me sometimes, but I am a fan of sci-fi. I love being taken into a strange world, and when it's told with imagination and credibility, I love being taken on that trip. I always have.

The choice of roles as I grow older gets more and more limited, so if I pin myself to one kind of part I would get in trouble. So, these oddball ladies came along for me to do - I guess Terry Gilliam helped in this respect. I have found them more interesting, flashier and I get more mileage out of them.

I think I've played a lesbian about five times. The first one was with Helen Baxendale in a drama called 'The Investigator,' about the conditions lesbians had to live under in the army in Britain, which was based on a true story.

Legislating is a very human experience in which trust and mutual respect play critical roles.

I am very happy that I am getting to play such layered and demanding characters. I feel blessed that directors are trusting me with such roles.

People assume actresses are afraid to get older; the truth is the roles get a whole lot more compelling once you're too old to play dumb.

Well, I think certain roles are chosen for us. The moment I read Pete Campbell I thought: I can do this, this is mine. And in Money, too. The truth is I turn down a lot of projects. If a character doesn't have some kind of internal struggle, it's no good for me.

I'd love to be one of those guys who could be like, 'Yeah, it's really exhausting,' but the truth is I'm not method. I don't take roles home.

I always look for reality. I look for plain truthful roles.

Corporate Hollywood thinks I'm a geek to go back and do theater. They don't understand why I don't want to be a movie star, why I'm not pursuing Mel Gibson's roles.

The last 10 years I have had to bulk up for roles and I'm naturally skinny, so I have eaten and killed so many chickens! I wouldn't even want to count. I need to balance that out.

When I started off many years ago, I made a determination that there were certain roles I didn't want to play.

I'd quite like to do a film but I'd also love to do more theatre. I want to keep challenging myself with good roles. It's harder for women because there aren't as many challenging roles.

You can't say yes to every role and you have to make people miss you. I don't want people to get sick of me.

All I'm being offered now are parts that are authority figures. I've done that. And that's not what I want. I want something different.

I'm going to create my own opportunities. If I can't find the roles I want, I'll just make them.