Quotes About Character

I've played good guys for most of my career, and when I came out to California, I thought, 'I really would like to find some wonderfully intelligent bad guy to play.'

I feel like the scripts were so wonderfully written in the sense that my character in '1666' and my character in '1994' mirrored each other in a really nice way. They're both so strong, empowered, determined, and passionate.

I began wondering, can one really write a biography of an illness? But I found myself thinking of cancer as this character that has lived for 4,000 years, and I wanted to know what was its birth, what is its mind, its personality, its psyche?

Magneto has a whole lot of complexity to him. Emotionally, he's coming from a very damaged place. I like the ambivalence of it. I want the audience leaving the theater wondering, asking the questions themselves rather than being spoon-fed like a lot of these super-villain characters.

If I had auditioned for 'Merlin' on magic alone, I don't think I'd have got it. Like any kid, I probably had a magic kit, but it's not something I ever pursued. I've never watched a magic show like David Copperfield or used him to base my character on, but I really like David Blaine and Darren Brown. They are doing wonders.

When I thought of writing for Rajini sir, I told myself it will be a really cool character with a very happy-go-lucky attitude. We took such a character and placed him in a strong story, and I believe, as a combination, it has worked wonders.

John Woo is a very nice and kind person; he gives almost no direction at all, trusting me to come up with the character. But when I think of him, I think of explosions!

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

Bad company is like a nail driven into a post, which, after the first and second blow, may be drawn out with little difficulty; but being once driven up to the head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, but which can only be done by the destruction of the wood.

I love 'Troy.' I love Brad Pitt's character - when he went to Troy, he just ran over it. Then this particular scene where they made this big old horse or something out of wood, and they hid inside the wood.

I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop wood and had a nice smile, it wouldn't bother me if he was a thug or an aristocrat, as long as he was a good guy. And I've ended up with an educated thug.

If you're trying to raise a son, it gives you a chance to say things like, 'Chop your own wood; it will warm you twice.'

When things get complicated, you have to bring out your character and put more wood on the fire.

I was in 'Babes in the Wood' at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in the Eighties. I was the villain - the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham.

I have always loved wood. Every piece is different. It gets better with age and it has a certain character all of its own.

Nobody could like Donald Trump, surely, except his mother. No one really likes The Donald. But how can you not have respect for a guy who's been down on the floor and just keeps coming back? Nothing will keep Donald Trump down until they drive a wooden stake in his heart and a silver bullet in his brain.

I've learned from being in the woods that titles don't mean much and that actions speak a lot louder than words - even in Congress. I always look for the people who want to act - people who want to run the river or climb the mountain - even if they're not members of my political party.

'Cinderella' the cartoon scared me. I watched the bits with the mice, and the scenes with the stepsisters ripping her dress apart scared me. Cinderella was never even my favorite character in 'Into the Woods.'

An interesting question that has been recurring is that she appears to have been this delicate woman in all these films, but really she was a woman of substance wasn't she? And I say yes, you don't get to be Audrey Hepburn if you are a sort of 'babe in the woods.' It takes a lot of character, a lot of vision, good boundaries and hard work.

New York in a way functions as another character within the story, as it does within most of Woody Allen's stories.

Scooby's the greatest cartoon character ever. He isn't cute like Mickey or smart like Bugs or fearless like Woody and Buzz - he's a talking dog who's more human than I am. It's his humanity and imperfections that make him special.

I judge a man by the way he treats people who don't count. Woody Hayes was nice to a lot of people he couldn't ever use.

It was kind of scary because working with Woody Allen becomes sort of a big deal in your mind. He directs in that Woody Allen character some of the time - he has these idiosyncrasies that are really charming and funny.

I grew up with Woody Allen and early Spike Lee movies in which New York was such a specific character. The city has a certain vibe and beat which really informs your entire existence.