Nico Tortorella Quotes

I get typecast as doctors, principals, middle-management-type guys - which, when you look at me, you realize is completely against my physical characteristics. I should be an action hero. So I don't understand what's going on.

I once literally had a casting director ask my agent, 'Can she play anything other than a drunk?'

Unless you burst into movies as a sex goddess, you're likely to play wives and mothers. I came into movies as a teenager in 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They' (1969) playing a pregnant waif from the Ozarks. I didn't get a chance to burst into movies in 'Body Heat.' My career isn't based on having a 23-inch waist and a big bust, though I do.

If you don't look like Rupert Graves or Hugh Grant, they'll have you playing the gardener.

Of course, I would like to play the guy next door, but nobody's going to hire me for that kind of role.

I'm not homely enough to play the nerdy girl and not nearly pretty enough to play the pretty girl.

Maybe I'm too masculine. Casting directors cast in their own, or an idealized image. Maybe I don't look like anybody's ideal.

If you're going to be born ugly and be an actor - the least they can do is let you play Lincoln.

A lot of times, I'll get roles where it's the dumb blonde or the cheerleader, and I just have no interest - and it can be a great movie, it really can - or the mean girl; those things don't intrigue me much.

People told me, 'you can't do intense characters.' Some said 'you look too commercial,' and I would wonder what a 'commercial look' is.

Well, I was always cast as an artistic homicidal maniac. But at least I was artistic!

I was played the villain so much because I was bigger and stronger than most, and they cast me as the villain everywhere I went.

I was confident and in good shape when I first came to L.A. but nobody would cast me in any well written roles. People assumed based on my looks I was an asshole and a one trick pony. They never let me improv or do comedy. It wasn't until I built a shlubby exterior, which stood in stark contrast to my inner confidence that people gave me room to play.

A lot of young Latino actors have said to me, 'Why can't we get an Oscar? Why can't we be nominated?' And the terrible truth is that if you don't get the right parts, you're not going to be. Are you going to get an Oscar nomination for one of those Judd Apatow movies? Not likely, no matter what nationality you are.

I think some superstars feel they get trapped in their established screen persona over and over again. That's what they get hired to do.

I think you get the parts that people are comfortable with seeing you play.

With 'Broadcast News,' it became a non-issue, and with 'The Piano,' it became a non-issue. Both parts were written for more statuesque women. It was nice to change people's minds about that, because that's neither here nor there.

People say you get identified with a role, and you get stereotyped, but I haven't found that to be the case.

Let's call a spade a spade: when people look at me, they say, 'Oh, she's the androgynous one.' I'll tell you what type of character I would never be offered out there: The femme fatale. Or the white-trash, heterosexual hillbilly.

I like to create characters that are larger than life. But it's funny because I do a lot of bad guys, and it's because, being European, I usually get cast as bad guys. It's just how it is.

I do believe, as a person of color, the disparities are great. A lot of the roles that were sent to me were 'Gangbanger No. 1.' And when a role did come up that I felt carried and represented my community in the best ways, I wasn't the only one that knew it existed. So I'd have to compete.

I'm black, yeah, but I'm just an actor, so everything I do doesn't have to be color-specific or specific to history. But I got to a point where a lot of people wanted to offer me period pieces, like that's the only thing I could do.

I play so many weirdos in movies that it's nice to play an attractive woman.

Since I am a turbaned Sardar, I can only play Sardar roles. Either that or producers should be willing to alter the script to accommodate my physical appearance. But I won't call this a restriction.

I wasn't, like, pretty enough to be the ingenue; I wasn't 'character' enough to be the goofball sidekick. I'm kind of ethnically ambiguous.