My mother and father were perfect role models. They were together for 25 years and very much in love. But I've got too much to do now. I'm only 27.
I wanted to build up a little nest egg and go back to L.A. and choose roles that I wanted to do instead of roles that I had to do to pay the bills.
The world needs a person like me so that many other rich people will be able to follow my role model. If they do, many poor people will be helped.
I have always been ambitious about getting a U.S. role, and if ever there is some frustration, it is still encouraging to get close to big roles because it implies there is somewhere to go.
I have actually lost a couple of roles - film roles - because a director or producer thought I looked too much like George Costanza, and I could not get out of that box.
Billy Konchellah with his World Championship titles, Paul Ereng with his Olympic gold and Wilson Kipketer with his World records are my role models.
I never thought I'd be a role model but I think to some people I am or have been.
I loved playing a dramatic role. There's a side of me a lot of people don't know, and when I do dramatic roles, it just all comes out.
I'd like to be the role model to teach other people who have Down's syndrome to be actors and actresses and to be themselves and not try to be a big shot.
I've always admired Cate Blanchett and the roles she chooses. I think she's got an incredible discipline in a way, with choosing roles that are going to help her grow and bring something interesting to the world.
Don't sell credits; don't sell walk-on roles... If people want to back you, they'll back you. But if you have to entice people will walk-on roles and crazy credits, you're undermining yourself.
I looked up to my parents because they were very successful in what they wanted to do. I was lucky; I didn't have to look far for role models.
My dream role is Richard Pryor, no question about that. I'm a big Richard Pryor fan. I've always been intrigued about the darkness behind his comedy; that would always be a dream role for me.
Twice I had been stopped by these jobs, and I thought the role on Dark Shadows would go on for about three or four weeks. And then, the phenomenon began, the role caught on, the mail started to flood in.
Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn't be more interesting - playing mothers, divorcees. I think it's going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it ...
The trailblazers are my role models in this industry: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, James Earl Jones, and Billy Dee Williams. I keep their pictures in my trailer and try to measure to their standards every time I act.
I don't have one role that I'm particularly fond of doing, and I don't really look for it to differ all the time, but I will try anything and do anything. If it's a role I connect with, I'll go for it, no matter what's involved.
The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said, once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to.
I played teen roles until high definition came out, and I could never understand it. I would go in for adult roles and be older than many of the people auditioning, but they'd cast the girl without a line on her face.
In India, it's hard not to have Gandhi as a hero. To give up everything - including power and money - and to live for his countrymen, that beats everything else. He's a role model of selflessness.
My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
