Quotes About Acting

I can be a teddy bear, but more people tend to see me as the other side of the coin, and that has to do with casting, more Iago than Hamlet. But I don't play villains; I play people doing the right thing for the circumstances and time.

It was so much fun to play, that I've now had a taste for it and want to play more villains now.

I sometimes find that playing the bad guy, or villains, or psychopaths tend to be much more psychologically rewarding. And you can really push it, you can push the limits, and get away with it.

I don't know why I always get to play these guys who have few redeeming features. But don't knock it. Villains are much more fun.

I don't play just villains. I like to have parts that are not simply villains.

People think that my favorite roles to do are villains, but I find comedy to be the most challenging and rewarding.

I've had my share of villains and played some fairly nasty characters. But I've been acting for so long. I started out as the girl next door. Now I'm the grandmother next door.

I have played 50 different kinds of fathers and villains. Only mediocre actors play the part the same way.

I do play villains.

I would love to play a villain someday in that I think that what I've done with my whole career is walk this tightrope between charming and creepy, and I always fall on the charming side. I'd like to fall on the creepy side and be like one of those scary old men, like really charming villains.

It feels bad to play a bad guy. I did George W. Bush for years, and I hated him. But you have to give full voice to the villains. You have to have really convincing villains, or it's not worth anything as drama or comedy.

I've played a lot of villains, and I always feel slightly upset when people say, 'You were so bad!'

I used to play a lot of villains. You have to break out of it, and I did.

Everyone says villains are thankless parts, but those are really the best roles.

Why can't I ever play a nice, normal, salt-of-the-earth type? Is there something I should know? It's fun to play villains and character roles, of course - but I'm sure it's also fun to be a really big star and play the lead in everything, where all you have to do is show up and not blink.

One of the things about having played a lot of villains is... I don't have the same experience of someone who maybe has been a leading man since they were 22 and therefore looks at certain things in a character to romanticize themselves. I actually very much embrace the bad stuff.

We are tagged as comedians, villains, etc. but those are just character traits of a role and there is no need for differentiation.

Villains are far more interesting to play than nice people.

After making my stage debut aged nine as Macduff's small son in 'Macbeth,' I had played a number of parts, from 'Twelfth Night's Viola to 'The Merchant Of Venice's Portia'.

I loved doing Shakespeare. My two favorite roles, in fact, have been Viola in Twelfth Night and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Viola Davis should be a household name. So should Angela Bassett.

Viola Davis is a perfect example of somebody who's so much better than the parts she has the opportunity to play.

Viola Davis is just one of those actors who is never bad in anything. She could be in an awful film but you'd never come away from it saying she was bad.

Viola Davis, she does have a lot of TV acting jobs, and she's also a very, very accomplished stage actress.