Robert Carlyle Quotes

I had the feeling that focusing on objects and telling a story through them would make my protagonists different from those in Western novels - more real, more quintessentially of Istanbul.

Anybody who works with me knows this: I always repeat wardrobe in my characters. We're trying to play real people.

With my characters, I prefer to not say too much, and in fact, I tend to cut down some of the lines in most scripts I get.

My job as a character actor is to make me fit the character, to serve the character. To present this human being who turns up in a piece of film or entertainment that's going, you know, exist as if it might exist after the film is finished and it existed before the film has started.

I spent seven seasons on 'Mad Men,' playing what became considered a very feminist character.

I've pretty much played every regional accent you can play in the U.K. I've played German, French, Arabic; I've been Jordanian, Lebanese. I've covered a lot of ground.

I'm just trying to play against ethnicity. I got to play a guy from Louisiana in 'The Pacific' named Merriell Shelton, and now I'm playing Elliot Alderman.

Playing a real-life character is definitely a lot more responsibility than one that is fictionalized.

You never want to just be outrageous for outrageous' sake 'cause then it doesn't work, and it's not believable. You want to be as true to whatever character you're playing.

These people I play are not usually wish-fulfillment characters.

The challenge is to stay true to the characters while also having them be entertaining every day, because it turns out that just watching someone be true to themselves isn't that rad to watch.

Even if an actor might not nail the moves in a way than a stunt person might, I wanted to bring the character of 'Hanna' into everything that she did.

I'm never writing as a character.

I don't think I was bubbly in 'Oohalu Gusagusalade.' It was a real character.

Make your characters believable, and your reader will believe what they believe.

I abhor badly-written characters and any character, be it man, woman, any character in the film. If it is a well-written character, it will come across as strong.

My task is to find the authenticity in the character. I tend to go with the script and tell that story.

I feel it's very important for an actor to believe in the character that he/she is playing and do full justice to it in order to convince others that you are the character you are portraying.

I would ask to tweak stuff during the action, because I thought Elektra would more likely express herself with a slap, for example. I wanted to keep the characteristics of my character even during the fights and express the violence as she would do it, not like somebody else would.

Just working on a character and his mannerisms, but not looking the part, is not my thing. It is your duty as an actor to be honest to the character.

When we started on 'Power,' I was committed to respecting the differences among Spanish dialects: Dominican, Nuyorican, Mexican, etc. I wanted the language our characters spoke to be as specific as possible, to reflect New York as it is.

In 'Shirin Farhad' I play the character of a Parsi woman. Though I was born a Parsi, in a Parsi family, I don't have the right accent.

In 'Maad Dad,' I play Lal's wife, who dies quite young. I've gone completely retro to fit into the role of his traditional wife.

Even though the 'Shooter' character on TV is so close to the real-life me, I'm still playing with ways to creatively portray that character.

We can list a bunch of actors who have embodied characters that aren't their nationalities, and I think that's the beauty of acting.