When you are cast for a role, it's because of everything that makes you who you are in that moment in time. No one else has that. That's a unique, powerful thing to hold.
My role 14 years ago in Richard III - that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it - they have all the fun!
For a long time I did not want to do television because I did not want to get stuck playing the same person. I wanted the ongoing challenge of a variety of roles.
I have a hard enough time speaking for myself - I don't pretend I can be a spokesman for anybody. I have no interest in playing that role.
I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn't ever comfortable in that role. I wasn't comfortable on stage. We'll see how it goes this time.
I'm inspired every time I see a role I'd like to play, an actor turn in a well crafted performance, a story I'd like to tell, direct or produce.
Fiction has a unique role in conveying Truth. In fact, only fiction that is Truth with a capital T is worthwhile.
[taking role] Old Guard: Copeland. Copeland: [snappishly] What? Old Guard: Copeland, you be nice now.
I don't want to be in a position where I'm playing roles I'm comfortable with and making money, but doing it without feeling like I'm growing.
I can't really connect with things unless they are spiritual in nature, so I have to make acting spiritual for myself, and each role a spiritual journey for me.
Over the centuries, religion has become institutionalized, and in the process encrusted with elaborate hierarchies, top-heavy bureaucracies, highly specialized roles and reflexive routines.
I think that we are at a point in our country where we're trying to decide what role should religion play in the political arena.
Look, none of the artists who I admire or respect have ever shied away from a role because it might make them unpopular with somebody.
The heritage of a British actor revolves around the challenges of playing the classic roles to meet certain levels of success as an actor. In America, the heritage of an actor is based on cinema mainly.
From an egotistical point of view, I'm always interested in roles that push me as a person. I'm interested in humans as animals and as products of society.
I love singing live, actually. And I'm dying to sing in a role, whether it's in a musical or a biographical film about a singer. It's always been one of my aspirations.
I would love to play Simon Cowell in a movie - heck, I would love it. It would be my dream role.
So, to prepare for the role, I had to take music lessons, talk to wives who had husbands overseas, and carefully study the reactions and mannerisms of a friend who was expecting.
I am a friend when I need to be a friend, a father when I need to be a father, a musician when music calls. I switch roles accordingly.
Marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman. I don't think it is the role of the state to define what marriage is.
I watched a lot of Douglas Fairbanks movies. He always played the same role with a mustache. Zorro had a mustache. The Musketeer had a mustache. Tarzan had a mustache.
