One of the great things that you should never do that I learned from John Malkovich is to never judge your characters.
Sometimes making a story is as easy as putting two characters in a room and seeing what happens. So, imagine a great white shark and a giant squid in the same bathroom.
That's the great thing about the 'Sin City' movies. Each little slot is incredibly meaningful, and each character has their own moment.
One of the great things and one of the horrible things about the American character is this extraordinary optimism and arrogance that everything will continue to be great and keep looking up.
I'm not writing great literature. I'm writing commercial fiction for people to enjoy the stories and to like the characters.
The great advantage of having a bear as a central character is that he can combine the innocence of a child with the sophistication of an adult.
Our Nation is in great need of young men and women of character to lead in every arena of our society.
What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.
I always think it's really hard if you are Asian or Chinese to be really in Hollywood. There are not so many really great characters for you.
To me, there are things you're good at and things you're not so good at. For some reason, I'm good at darker characters. It has to do with how you look.
With action films, it's great if it's not just driven by action, but by a good story and interesting characters, as well. Though, there's nothin' like kicking butt!
Storytelling is storytelling. Good stories need compelling characters and interesting conflicts. That's the bottom line no matter what medium you're writing for.
Not to oversimplify it, somebody once said a good rule of thumb in interpreting a character is to find the good in the bad people that you portray and the bad in the good.
I was never a leading man. I've always been in the outer concentric circles in the company, being a character actor, which is a good place to be. It gives you that diversity.
There are all kinds of ways that people present their films, but that's kind of a good feeling, if you can make it seem like the characters are really there.
I did 'Narnia' because it was a good opportunity and all that, but really? I wanted to play Mr. Tumnus because he's my favourite children's character. That was awesome.
Hair and make-up people don't get enough credit for what they do. It's not just making people look good. It's really creating the character.
I think I've been good at getting into lonely and troubled characters because, not to brag, but I'm the complete opposite in real life.
To me the voice has always been the way to start any character. Once I find that, I'm good to go.
Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested.
Characters are the key to a good book. It took me several novels to comprehend that.
