Actor Inspiration Quotes

Leonardo DiCaprio I find very inspiring... He's my idol. I absolutely love Leonardo DiCaprio. Christian Bale, obviously, being a British actor and going from 'Empire of the Sun.' Now he's Batman.

When I was younger I saw a movie called 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Those two actors and that movie was my inspiration to want to be an actor.

I follow Elle Fanning's career. I really like to follow actors who are a similar age to me. Just to see what they're up to.

I think the moment I discovered I definitely wanted to act was when I saw a play alone by myself when I was fourteen. Maybe it was a Moliere play? I discovered the atmosphere of the theater, and I knew I wanted to be an actor.

I never write with an actor in mind - never.

I think Ryan Gosling is a really great actor who's meticulous about his work. And I'd love to have the guts that Johnny Depp has to actually go outside the box on a character. When he plays a character, he plays it in a way that nobody else would.

The 'Planet of the Apes' movies made me wanna - probably unconsciously - be an actor. Seriously. And The Mummy - and 'Hammer horror' movies. 'Fantastic.' I loved stuff like that, and that stuff probably did more than anything to make me wanna do it.

I have been a fan of Yoo Ah In's for a long time. Every time I watched one of his films, I would think to myself, 'How does he act like that?' and greatly admired his acting abilities. I felt that I would be able to learn and improve a lot as an actor, just by observing.

I grew up in the late '70s. We played outside all day. I think that's where I got the whole notion of being an actor, you know, stunt fighting with my friends.

As a writer, I always think about who my prototype actors are, in my brain. It's helpful, as a writer, to think about that.

I was inspired by Cary Grant. I wanted to do the kind of work he did and to work in light-hearted roles, in comedies.

I'm a big Harrison Ford fan. I kind of pattern a lot of things after him, the way that he's an every man. He's one of the biggest action stars ever, but he transcends that term because he's such a good actor. I tend to really appreciate the stuff he's done.

I never think about the next movie. I always think about the situation I'm in now, but you do think about an arc someone can go. I love Johnny Depp, I love 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' but I never wanted to play the same character over and over again.

When I was a kid, I think I wanted to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Meryl Streep was my hero. I wanted to be that type of actor more than anything.

I am a very big fan of Aamir Khan. He has a great filmography. I also want to do films like him.

'The Good Wife' has actually been something, ironically, that I've watched since episode one, season one in the U.K. because it came up when I was in drama school. I always watched it. It was kind of like an actor's show.

When watching movies, I was always inspired by the performances of the cast. Of course, the story and the direction and all that intrigued me. But what actors would propel themselves to do, and be, was awesome. It was like, how could these people give so much?

The actors I admire, like Ben Kingsley or Daniel Day-Lewis, they totally reinvent themselves in every part. I hope I get a chance to do that.

If you want anybody to have a different voice, you really have to visualize and hear the voices of all these people. Sometimes when I write with specific actors in mind, it helps.

Being asked to play one of the butlers is like being picked to play for England. All you have to do is think of the great butlers from the past - Terry-Thomas in 'How To Murder Your Wife,' John Gielgud in 'Arthur' and Denholm Elliott in 'Trading Places.'

All of the actors that have served to me as inspiration over the years have been those more associated with dramatic work who have, in turn, been able to embody their characters and lose themselves in those characters that they create.

My favorite actor was, is, Michael Keaton. Certainly growing up, in the movie 'Night Shift' he did something brand new that I hadn't seen before that we all steal from now. And then it was in 1987 he did the movie 'Clean and Sober' and 'Beetlejuice' in the same year, and that was when I said, 'Wow, that's what I want to do.'

Shah Rukh Khan is an institution in himself. Like me, there are millions who adore and worship the Badshah of Bollywood. I've been a huge fan of him even before I decided to become an actor.

I didn't have much ambition, but I always had an idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to act. I would watch actors like Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart, and Kirk Douglas, and I understood them.