Clean living is the cardinal principle in the lives of the world's greatest athletes, as the phenomenal performances of these outstanding characters will obviously show.
I used to audition for 'NYPD Blue' quite a bit, so I had this stock New York detective character that I would bring in for all their auditions.
I wish I were a character actor. Of course, if I played hockey without a mask, I could become one.
You have an awareness of your body and how to use it and I think that if you can embody a character physically it's another really useful tool.
My impulse is to create an aesthetic that's about a humanistic approach to a world and trying to create compassion for all the characters.
People sometimes seem surprised because often, you know, you know, there's a lot of tortured characters in the stuff I write.
I'm not one of these 'the characters write themselves; the story just fell out of me' kind of writers. Wish it was like that.
Hollywood didn't know if I was an actor or a nut or if I was this crazy character I was playing. I had developed an image of being a little bit unusual, different and wild.
There is a misperception, if you will, in critical response or even in Hollywood, that I can only do exaggerated characters. Or what they would call over-the-top performances. Well, this is completely false.
It's usually easier for me to begin writing in a character's voice if that person is different from me in some significant way.
I always find filming stressful. I get very caught up thinking about my character - 'Am I doing it right? Should it be done this way?'
Once I start putting all my little insecurities in my mind, I'm not actually acting. Then it's about me - and it should never be about me. It should be about the character.
What interests me in writing a novel is taking really remote voices, characters, and stories and beginning to create some kind of web.
I think the more the actor lets you know what he thinks of the character, the less the audience cares - like a comedian who laughs at his own jokes.
The thing that I like about the way characters are written on the show these days is that nobody's perfect. Everyone has made a lot of mistakes and bad choices.
All I wanted to do was read, to be told stories. Stories were full of excitement and emotions and characters that entertained and often inspired.
Dysfunctional co-dependent relationships always appeal to me. I don't know exactly how it started. I start writing sketches of characters and little scene-lets, and then it builds.
Will isn't a screaming queen - that's Jack's part. They needed someone to play the part for America. It's just not the same as Britain. To have a gay character as a lead is risky.
In human character, simplicity doesn't exist except among simpletons.
As an actor, particularly because I'm - I would call myself a character actor. I change my look, my physical appearance and my body, my hair color, my whatever all the time for a role.
I saw 'Six Degrees of Separation' because my brother was in it. It was a watershed experience. It was theatrical and scary, and New York functioned like a character. John Guare became a hero for me.
