It takes great character and understanding of human emotions to help someone you shouldn't be helping under normal circumstances.
If you get a book which is 600 pages, you have to reduce it to a script of 100 pages. In two hours of film, you cannot possibly include all the characters.
'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' - every scene is from those characters' point of view. They're in literally every scene, very unusual in a big studio film.
Psych yourself up until you're confident that the world will be interested in what happens to your characters. Confidence is key.
It probably says something really clinically terrible about my character that I need to get up on a stage and go 'Ra ra ra' in front of people.
True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.
Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?
Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.
Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me.
When you take on a role, even if the character is somebody that you are dissimilar to, you have to identify with the role and look for an emotional connection even if there is not a biographical one.
Me being a shy kid, very closed off, showing vulnerability in a character was sort of a safe space on stage. It's always been in my toolbox, there for me when I need it.
I don't think I will do a Mafia character again. I want to get away from the violence a little bit, because it is starting to bother me personally.
Normally you read a screenplay - and I read a lot of them - and the characters don't feel like people. They feel like plot devices or cliches or stereotypes.
Your responsibility is to not question God’s actions or what looks like a lack of action. Your obligation is to count on God’s character.
I'm a personality - like a George Plimpton who effectively plays himself in a bunch of different roles, or a Paul Lynde-type character.
I wasn't beautiful, so there were plenty of character roles. I never did any Shakespeare, I'm far too superficial for that. I just act instinctively.
Character forms a life regardless of how obscurely that life is lived and how little light falls on it from the stars.
Every actor wants to have a character that changes, that has some kind of movement, that gets from point A to point B, that doesn't just supply one note.
The stories in 'Parenthood' are so much the stories of our lives. And the people who have worked on the show feel very connected to these characters.
It interests me to imagine characters shifting from one situation and one location to another for whatever the circumstances may be.
I do what I do because of Walt Disney - his films and his theme park and his characters and his joy in entertaining.
