My stories are pretty simplistic, but the characters are always complex and always right, and that comes from the script and my research and reverse-engineering what I find in the real world.
I started out as an artist, and what I do is verbal paintings. I paint a picture. Hopefully, you'll see the characters and what they're doing and what they're saying.
For me, screenwriting is all about setting characters in motion and as a writer just chasing them. They should tell you what they'll do in any scene you put them in.
I'm drawn to provocative characters that find themselves in extreme situations. And I think I'm drawn to that consistently.
One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes.
I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story.
I try to keep myself in what I'm doing and focused on character stuff, as opposed to getting wrapped up in worrying or being nervous. It won't benefit me, in any way, to focus on that.
I really enjoyed playing Freddie Cork. People are always scared to approach me because of the character I played in 'Brotherhood.' The writing was very smart.
One way I differ from my character, Coach Taylor, is that I never would have taken this faraway job without my wife's consent.
I'm an actor; I have made my living by acting, and I almost think I owe it to the public to express my feelings and not as a character on a screen but as myself.
The thing that cracks me up is how these reality characters start out thrilled and excited just to be on television, and how they move to thinking they are as big as the Friends.
I come from a theater background, so usually, at the start, you know what happens and where the character goes and everything. But with TV, it's really unpredictable.
A lot of actors are like, 'Why do I do this? My character wouldn't do this? This doesn't make sense.' And in a comedy, you kind of just need to walk into the door.
If you look at me in 'Ride Along,' even though I'm playing two different characters, my demeanor and my tone were not aggressive.
I never really do much research before signing a film. It is just the script and character that I concentrate on.
I treat all my characters as if they were real, and I am scrupulous about the details of their lives.
One of the things I liked about my character in 'Run' is that she can just disappear into the background if she wants, which is what I'm like.
So the laughs had to come from the character, not because we had balloons in our shirts or were speaking in high voices. That was very important to us.
I wouldn't say I've changed my mind. I changed some of my natural habits, some of my natural character.
I've always wanted my characters to have more dimension and realistic cores than the ingenue material often provides. It's been a challenge.
Some of the newer folks in the industry, I'm not sure they are familiar with the term acting. They don't understand what it means to play a character rather than just be a personality.
