Nicholas Lea Quotes

After 'Mulk,' I figured it's your voice that people are connecting with. So then my voice became of prime importance to me for my films.

One must never assume that a character is sympathetic because of either the actor playing them or the fact that they're a lead. I think that's a recipe for failure, actually, because if they become unsympathetic, you lose your audience.

As a writer, all you want to do is write for great actors. That's all.

It's people politics, people dynamics that make a show really good, whether it's 'Desperate Housewives' or 'Lost' or 'The Sopranos.' It's the people we've grown to love or otherwise.

The most fascinating powers don't mean a thing if the guy's poorly motivated or dull, and the most generic powers won't hurt a well-motivated character. Personality and motivation are what make Magneto, Magneto and not Cosmic Boy. The powers work for him, but it's his motivation that makes him the character he is.

Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters.

The characters are always the focal point of a book for me, whether I'm writing or reading. I may enjoy a book that has an intriguing mystery or a good plot, but to become one of my real favorites, it has to have great characters.

As an actor, it's great to play a strong leader with a heart of gold.

I try to distinguish my characters from each other.

'Push' had a story, 'The Paperboy' story you could just throw up in the air and shoot holes through the book because the story wasn't as strong. But I felt the characters were stronger in 'The Paperboy'; they were vivid.

The best shows are always the ones that are very, very low-concept and just about great characters.

I try to create characters that I am fascinated by on some level or intrigued by or can't stand.

It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.

The great lesson in theatre is that you live the story every night, and that is a wonderful vehicle for getting to the richest places in a performance or investing a character with the richest life.

A lot of actors, whatever movie you're working on, you make up a back story just for your own, to work off, even if the audience doesn't have it revealed to them. I think it's important that the audience makes up their own mind.

I think it's refreshing to have a character-driven 'Batman' story that isn't just about action and getting out of scrapes.

Over the years, if you look at the films of people like Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, Frank Capra, their supporting characters, even if it's a doorman with two lines, always seem three-dimensional. To me, that's a sign of good storytelling.

All the movies I've made are essentially character-driven movies about people that I'm interested in.

I love characters who can rile an audience so much - it means you've done your job well.

Audiences need to engage with characters.

I feel I have been playing all primary characters. And if your character forms a connect with the audience, it doesn't matter if you are playing only the main solo lead or a second lead.

Smart writers really take their time in investing in backstories and characters. As a viewer, you have to invest in them and love them before you can chip away at what's going on more on a deeper level with secondary characters.

You don't want to make performances; you want to make people. When a project knows, 'Okay, my bad guys need to be a little sympathetic, and my good guys need to have a bit of a mean streak,' you're off to a good start.

No role is big or small; every character does its magic and brings its own connect with the audience.

For me, a story has to have characters, and my role should be meaningful. At the end of the day, people should say that they like my performance.