Biographical Role Quotes

It's daunting to play a real living person.

Doing comedy and romance is easy, if I compare it with playing the role of a real-life person.

I've always wanted to do a role based on a real-life person.

The minute I got the part of James Herriot, I asked to meet him.

It's a great responsibility playing a real-life character because the person has reached a certain position after undergoing a lot of things.

Playing somebody who's still alive is very interesting.

My dream role? I think to play Sammy Davis Jr. and his life story.

It is very satisfying for an actor to be able to play a historical personage.

I would love to play Marlene Dietrich in a movie. My dad's from Germany and so I feel like that would be a really interesting person to play.

If you play a real character who's famous and still alive, it makes things easier if you have the luck to have a good relationship with them.

I do as much research as is physically possible when I'm playing a real person, be they alive or dead.

I actually think actors both are drawn to playing real-life historical people and are terrified.

If I'm playing a real-life person, I would take notes, I think that's important. For instance, when I played Rosemary Clooney, I was lucky enough to meet her; thankfully, she was still with us. And I talked with her and read her book, so when it's a real person, I want to find out everything I can.