Quotes About Acting

Obviously, doing TV and doing theater are completely different because they're two totally different mediums. On stage, you worry about your voice and how you move physically. On TV, something like an eye twitch is what they could be looking for from you because it's so contained.

As far as someone who I would like to work with - this is super out of the box, and I have put this on my Twitter - Pam Grier. I love her. I just love her fierceness, and she's kind of, for me, one of the first black superheroes. I would love to have a chance to work with her.

I think my best acting is always when I have one or two people to get really intimate and friendly with off set and bring that relationship on set.

I feel I'm two people: I have my interest in acting and I have a lot of other political interests I'd like to pursue.

Playing two people is definitely difficult, but it's made possible by everyone around me, and it's a big team effort.

You have to have chemistry - it's acting. I need to make people believe the rumba is about two people in love, and the tango is about passion.

Nobody remembers young Kasturba... Once I called Basu Bhattacharya and told him 'I am only getting roles of a mother.' He told me, 'There are only two people who can play young and old with equal ease, you and Sanjeev Kumar. So, don't feel bad about it.'

I've played two people simultaneously for 35 years.

Acting was absolutely my first focus. I graduated high school in L.A., and two weeks afterwards, I moved to New York City, and I got a job in a mail room, and I got an agent, doing what actors do, with head shots and all the rest of it.

There's no particular role that comes to mind that I'd like to take on, but for me, it's about playing interesting characters and not just two-dimensional ones.

I think, in a comedy, it's easy to play people as very two-dimensional. But what is enjoyable to watch is seeing a more fully rounded person.

'Mary Tyler Moore' was - it was my first big hit.

I'd love to get into one of Tyler Perry's movies - play a little role, have a little character. I don't care. But more than two lines! More than two words!

I think someone like Khandi Alexander, who's now on 'Treme,' is one of the most extraordinary actresses I've seen in years. But she's dependent on someone brilliant like David Simon to realize that and to give her a forum. Tyler Perry's not interested in that kind of nuance because it doesn't sell.

It took me years to live down Dracula and convince the film producers that I would play almost any other type of role.

I never went to drama school. It's a brilliant thing for the right type of person, but I threw myself in the deep end.

I would like to work with my ideal type, Song Hye Kyo sunbae. Although she has an elegant and classic style, her charisma is also strong, and her acting talent is outstanding. If we act together, I think I could learn a lot from her. But I'd probably be nervous a lot of times.

I would like to, especially in film, play against type and do some heavier stuff. I'm intrigued by projects that deal with problematic people and things.

It's been dawning on me slowly that for the past 35 years I have been cast against type, and I'm finally getting to do what I really wanted to do.

I'm not one of those actors who gets so taken by a role that I can't live my life. I'm the type of actor who goes to work, transforms into a character, takes you on a journey, and then comes back home to be Billy. When I'm in it, I'm in it, but I know how to get out of it. When you can't shut it off, you're a crazy person. I'm not crazy.

When I started acting, my whole focus and intention was to work as a stage actor in a company where you're asked to different roles - do a comedy, do a tragedy, etc. I haven't had any reservations about jumping from one type of genre to another.

I tend to get cast as a certain type of quiet, almost introverted person who's strong on the inside, but the characters are so very different I don't see it as any kind of typecasting.

I don't know if I could play 'intimidating' in a way that's physically a tough type, and it feels like since 'Mindhunter' came out, auditions have been much more geared toward more intelligent characters. And that's the kind of stuff I like to play.

Basically, the way you get into any role is just doing research on the type of character you're playing.