The thing I'm scared of most is not fulfilling my work. There's so much anxiety around trying to get a movie made that you don't really get to be afraid of anything else.
The roles that I feel I get, or handed to me, or whatever, are not that interesting. I don't think it's a problem that's specific to black women. I think it's a problem that's specific to movie-making in America.
Actors are superstitious about beggars, perhaps because we're largely in the same line.
...if you're an actor, and you've thought your way into the part, then you're character portrayal will have authority...
I hate going to L.A. and dealing with the contempt people have for television and television actors. It's unbelievable the kind of attitude people take toward what is the most exciting medium we've got right now.
If I or any other black can deliver at the box office, I'll get a lot of work. Too many young actors, regardless of their color, try to play an attitude on camera and fail to remember their job is to fit into an entertainment.
I always knew I wanted to be an actor, certainly from the age of eight or nine. I think when you know what you want to do, you're very lucky because you've got a focus.
There's a very small group of elite actresses who are my age, who people want to work with. It's not easy to get a good job with good actors.
Just call me a family man and an actor who digs his whole scene, side interests and all. Just say I feel mighty good at the ripe old age of 27.
Don't get too set on becoming an actor at an early age. I think that's where some people get into trouble. Acting becomes their life. I don't want that.
So it's joyful to me, in my 71st year, to be able to be in a play that is absolutely right for my age and my experience, and that is a popular success. What more could you ask as an actor?
There's still a massive inequality between the genders. If you look at the trajectory of a male actor's career, there's no hesitation or hiatus. But women after the age of 35 to 40 are rarely placed in the centre of the story.
I told her it was a bigger than life musical, that all the actors were going to be about the same age, late twenties into thirties. It would be a style; a kind of surreal high school.
I think we know too much about actors as it is and their personal lives and it's this information age where we're stimulated constantly by the celebrity buzz effect or whatever it is, these web sites and blogs and different things.
When you put a group of actors together who get along, and we have since day one, they don't become like their roles. What tends to happen is their age disappears and they all deal with each other as friends.
Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of our age; he's like Olivier. He's one of those people who can take you into a place where no one else can take you.
I used to sit near Marilyn Monroe in the Actor's Studio. She'd get dressed up because that was her identity. Sad. Those cameras wouldn't leave her alone. She didn't know where to hide.
One sign of a great actor is when he can be alone by himself on the screen, doing almost nothing, and producing one of a film's defining moments.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, I don't know if you'd call him a great actor, but he's amazing in terms of his presence, and he is interesting enough that you want to watch him.
'The Comeback' is my favorite TV show of all-time because it's just brill. It's Lisa Kudrow's show about what it's like to be an actor on a TV show. She's so amazing on it.
I hate the stereotype of the pitfalls of the child actor. There are so many amazing examples - Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore - of people who have made it through.
