Actor Perspective Quotes

I don't think it's necessary to be an actor to get great performances out of an actor. But I do think it helps me as a director because I know what I like as an actor, and I try to get that to the actors who I'm working with.

Tom [Cruise] is a great producer himself. He's got great sense of story. It's always great to have the perspective of the person who's playing the character in your film.

It would be hard to play a character you don't like - for me anyway - or can't find something in them to like.

I think, from every actor I've ever spoken to, they say the biggest thing they regret from life is not finishing school.

I know I'm an actor, but I'm not at all a believer in people watching a lot of TV. I've never had television in my home.

Every year or so, I try to do something; it keeps me refreshed as to what's going on in front of the lens, and I understand what the actor is going through.

I thought being in the wheelchair might be kind of limiting for me as an actor. It turned out cool in a lot of ways. Of course, at the end of the day, I can get up out of the chair and go home, but I'm very acutely aware that most people can't, so I try to give the situation that depth.

It's funny, people talk about the characters they play and who do you sort of see yourself as or which ones maybe were closest to you and in some ways.

Well, as an actor, at least from my standpoint, I can't not like who I'm playing.

I think directors should at least take acting lessons to see what's going on. And I think all actors should direct to see what a director has to go through.

I can't tell you why I keep getting asked to play gay characters, but I never really considered 'gay' as an adjective, as a playable thing. Maybe it's an element of the character, but it just describes a preference.

I get very irate with actors when they talk about how distressing it all is. I mean, it's only acting. Please.

A lot of actors say that no villain wants to be a villain, generally. They don't might being evil, maybe, but they have an agenda that they can justify. Otherwise, a little bit of that tension goes, if you're just a villain and everyone hates you because you're mean.

I've never been bothered by proximity to special effects and I've never felt disadvantaged by them. They're all part of a movie, and when the movie's under control I don't feel upstaged by them.

British actors come at acting from a slightly different angle. Because a lot of the films are cast out there, they are so used to the angle from which the Americans, and certainly the young guys from L.A., are coming at it, that I think it's interesting for them to find these English actors who maybe approach acting from a different place.

It's difficult to judge other actors, because as an actor you're looking at different things than what an audience is looking at.

You wouldn't want me to play Frost in a wheelchair, would you? 'Frost' is getting a little long in the tooth. I still enjoy doing it, and it's a great part, but I just think he's got to retire.

As actors, we have the opportunity to work with many directors. Directors only work with themselves and other actors. They never know what it is like to work with another director. So that relationship that one has with a director is entirely always the king.

Do I seem to play characters that in the end don't get the girl? Maybe. But you don't always get the girl or the guy, and there has to be someone to play that.

I think that by now, in the very beginning when I first joined the show, General Landry was like a new kid in school. I was coming into a situation I didn't really know much about, and now, after a couple of years, the character's kind of mellowed and gotten comfortable working at the command center and very comfortable with his troops. What they always do with these shows is they always leave them open-ended. The SG-1 franchise has been so successful for the network, that they always want to keep it open, an option to do it again in some way, whether that's a movie or a series, or whatever.

It's weird talking about projects as an actor because you're so in them. I would prefer to write a paper and deliver it to everyone via e-mail.

It's pretty inappropriate of fans to think they can expect any kind of narrative from showrunners or writers or actors. I just don't think that's the way you should engage with material that you're watching as a passive audience member.

I did a play once where a reviewer said, 'Martin Freeman's too nice to play a bad guy.' And I thought: 'Well, bad guys aren't always bad guys, you know?' When I see someone play the obvious villain, I know it's false.

The producer and writers [ of X-Men: Apocalypse ] were kind of feeling me out with, "Are you okay with the fact that you die?" and I was, like, "Yes." That's something that people would talk about, so I thought it was cool that I died. Havok was in three movies and then I get to be remembered.

I understand acting and I understand actors. I don't really understand the world of celebrity. That's just bizarre. Those sorts of elements I'm at sea with.