Quotes About Character

I have two hammocks, one Mayan and one Guatemalan, both family size because I like to lie in them perpendicular. When I'm working on a character, I lie in them and daydream. They're the best tools for working that I have.

I would never make up a character who didn't exist or an event that didn't transpire. If you're a real writer, you have other tools in your toolbox to build drama.

I come from film, where I only play a character for three months at a time, and then it's done, so it's important for me to be able to put on other hats and make sure that all of the tools in my toolbox that don't apply to Olivia Pope are still in shape.

As an actress, my best tools are my emotions and expressions.

In the case of 'Sweet Tooth,' and in the case of a lot of stuff I do, it all starts with the image. It may be something I sketch in my sketchbooks - something that reoccurs in the sketchbooks. Eventually, a character or story line starts to grow out of that.

I was shooting a mini-series for Sundance/BBC, called 'Top of the Lake,' that was shot by Jane Campion, who's a beautiful native New Zealander and famous film director. The role I was playing was very intense, and they shaved half my hair off. So, I looked like this post-apocalyptic character.

Every top player has his own style, just as every painter has his own personal signature.

I like being part of a film scene where the person at the top is a really good person.

Usually, somebody's size is not even in the top five things they would say about themselves. Because there's so much more going on than if they have blonde hair or are a size 12.

I was fascinated by a compelling character embroiled in a controversial topic that told the story from a different point of view.

On a personal level, I don't exactly thrive on the idea of being known as the guy who goes topless - because I also took my shirt off on 'American Horror Story: Coven' - but I think in 'The Last Kingdom,' it's mainly done in the right way.

He who could have been a torch and stoops to being a pair of jaws is a deserter.

To appreciate the noble is a gain which can never be torn from us.

No offense to the Canadians, but I believe location is like a character, and authenticity really matters. When you're in a place like New York or D.C., you just can't beat it, and it's so hard to recreate because they are both such distinctive places. I think it's pretty easy these days to tell films that are shot in Toronto.

When you have to get into the character each morning, give it your voice, your face, it was torture.

I think I'm good at looking moody. I'm not much good at analysing myself, but I tend to fit the strange and tortured characters.

The idea that every time you do a film you're supposed to be tortured confuses me. I mean, guys who say, 'Oh, it's really tough, my character is really suffering' -come on. For us, even in the rotten ones we've had a good time. I don't think you have to suffer.

Tortured characters are, I think, an actor's dream.

That's the Elektra I tried to portray: one that's always in the grey. She is a tortured soul.

There is no better test of character than when you're tossed into crisis. That's when we see one's true colors shine through. So I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.

I'm in this new Showtime series called 'Ray Donovan.' I play this guy Stu Feldman who runs Paramount Pictures, so the total opposite to this character.

You are the sum total of the choices you make every day.

Everyone is the sum total of past experiences. A character doesn't just spring to life at age thirty.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.