I was curious. Here was a character where I just didn't know how they were going to write him into 13 episodes without it being one note. My fear was that I didn't want to join something where I was just going to be this prop and this mustache twirling character.
As for 'Twin Peaks,' I'm happy to have been a part of something that was a success. The only time I was concerned was during the second season when it started to lose its focus, and I was thinking, 'What if I get stuck here for five years? I would go crazy.'
I was afraid that I'd be typecast as the token firang. That happened initially. Now, I am acting in 'Noises Off' and 'Menagerie,' where all of us are playing British and American characters. That makes me feel better.
I'm a little concerned I'm always going to be playing a black guy, you know what I'm saying?
There was a time when all the actors were saying, 'We should get residuals on videogames.' I just kept going, 'You don't have any idea what goes into making a game, do you?'
Nobody told me there was any idea for a sequel to 'The Exorcist.' But my agent called me to tell me they were going to do it, and there was a part for me. I said, 'But I died in the first film.' 'Well,' he told me, 'this is from the early days of Father Merrin's life.' I told him I just didn't want to do it again.
I think my concerns are the same as every actor. Can I find this character and make it come to life properly?
I think that for the actors, the last thing that they want is a director that's not watching, a director that goes 'Okay, it sounded good to me,' and they were doing something else or preoccupied with something else because they were worried about the light changing.
I don't want to do 'Hamlet.' I don't want to do Robert Redford roles or Mel Gibson roles or Kevin Costner roles, because I'm not going to be good at them.
Sometimes you read a script, and it's like, 'You'll improv, and this is just a blueprint of what the scene could be,' and that's never a good sign. And it's never encouraging as an actor to take that on, really.
I suppose that there might have been leading men who were put off from casting me as the ingenue because I was taller than they were, but I've no idea that this ever happened. When I did 'Much Ado About Nothing' opposite Mark Rylance in the West End, we used the difference in our heights as part of their relationship.
I don't want to get typecast and I've been doing a lot of stuff to make that happen and not be the case.
It's tricky territory, height and co-stars. The only thing I can say is that it's never been an issue in my life.
I don't want to play a superhero. Drogo may not be Superman, but it is a phenomenal role. I didn't want to get typecast. Drogo is an exceptional character. Conan is iconic. Whether it does good or not, you just try to elevate it to the next level.
If I played a vamp I would be rejected by the audience outright.
With 'Badhaai Ho,' I loved the script but was anxious that someone else might get the role.
I think the English public loves period drama. I love watching them myself. It's such a massive part of our TV tastes, even though, as an actor, you don't want to be doing the same thing again and again.
I don't want to be stuck to one character. I think that's what can happen when you take on a superhero movie.
Frankly speaking, I don't want to be typecast as someone who only does negative roles.
Because [writers] Dan Weiss and David Benioff have done such a great job in adapting them, that's what we work with. It serves no purpose to anybody for actors to come onto a set with a well-thumbed copy of the source material and start querying why this or that line has been left out of the script. It's probably been left out for a good reason.
There's always a concern as an actor that you'll be boring unless your character is swinging from a chandelier.
I do think I tend to be typecast, but it doesn't necessarily bother me.
Nobody wants to play - I've talked to Brent Spiner about this. You don't want to play a character indefinitely who's not supposed to age.
I don't want to be known just as 'Carrot Top.' I don't always want to be this crazy, goofy guy.
As actors, the great thing about our career is we get to change from role to role. I don't want to be known as "put him in the movie because he has nice abs" guy.
