James Gandolfini Quotes

To me, 'Educating Rita' is the most perfect performance I could give of a character who was as far away from me as you could possibly get and of all the films I have ever been in, I think it may be the one I am most proud of.

I do this acting thing mostly for myself. I like to make a connection and communicate with the audience to make myself feel less lonely. I also do it to develop my own character, so sometimes I do it to just be away in a certain area that I've never been to. But mostly, the story has to do something for me.

Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience.

I think acting can bring you closer to yourself and help you understand other people.

I like playing characters with internal problems.

The most you play a character in the theater is, like, a couple months, and then you put it away.

I became a better listener than I ever had been as a result of playing Jean Luc Picard because it was one of the things that he does terrifically well.

My face lends itself to austere characters, and unless they're two-dimensional, I will do them. Any actor will tell you that an interesting villain is much more interesting to play.

I've been on the wrong end of violence, and I've done violence myself... I refuse to glorify violence in my movie and television roles.

When I was playing a psychopath in 'Happy Valley,' it was really weird.

I don't know if I've ever played a character who's close to me. There have been some elements of myself in different roles. Sometimes, I show one side of myself and then completely conceal the other.

I didn't want to get into acting just to play bystanders. I feel a bystander enough in my own life. And I do think that theatre can contribute to a certain analysis and commentary on our own world.

I want to keep an element of myself in every character I play. And maybe that's connected to finding something that you like in every character. Maybe they coincide.

We can all become better than we are.

Your job as an actor, I guess, is just to make people relate to the character.

You just have to play the character.

Acting is what I do with who I am.

What is important is the character that I play. Making an impact is far more important than the length of the role.

It doesn't feel good to be a horrible, violent, misogynist person.

Acting is kind of an escape. You get to live life as someone else, and when you're living this life as someone else, you don't really have time to think about your own life.

Any show that kind of relish the damage of its main character without really investigating what that damage does, where it's from or what it means, is a show I think needs to be taken down a peg.

Like any other actor, I also look for good scripts and want to portray some memorable characters on screen.

When an actor decides to play a character, he must exude some sort of charisma and look relatable, even if he is playing the role of a really unattractive person.

Playing the character of Arjun is a challenging task, and I like taking up challenges.

My job as an actor is to live the role that I do.