Character Believability Quotes

I think if you play a character that is fearless, then it's boring. I think that's what was so incredible about Harrison Ford, is that he always seemed like he was never going to survive it, he's always scared, and yet he always does survive it somehow.

I think the thing is with a movie that has this much science fiction in it; you need characters who are more science fact, if you know what I mean, than they are human.

Ultimately, physical resemblance isn't as important as whether this person can bring this character to life in a way that's compelling and makes me care about what happens to them.

The good and wonderful thing about my whole career is that I've always felt that the audience, if I do it well, will track wherever I go, whether it's President or a lawyer or bad guy or good. All I have to do is execute the material enough where they buy into it. I've had the great luxury of the audiences accepting that.

One thing I think is really important is chemistry, and if actors have chemistry, audiences will pick up on that. Audiences will root for characters that don't even exist as a couple because the actors' chemistry is so strong.

There are lots of wonderful actors doing animated films these days, but I prefer it when you can't recognise them - it means they've really become the character.

I don't want to know about the lives of other actors and I don't want people to know too much about me. If we don't know about the private lives of other actors, that leaves us as clean slates when it comes to playing characters. That's the point, they can create these other characters and I can believe them.

I like using animals because they help suspend my reader's disbelief. We have certain ideas about dentists. We don't have many ideas about rhinoceros dentists.

When you see me play Jack, I want you to believe that that's a gay character.

When you go into the realm of a double role, you have to take it to another level to make it believable.

If you're going to have a book full of clever people and nobody ever jokes, it's just not going to ring true to the reader. That said, humor writing is the hardest kind of writing there is.

I think in many ways Johnny English is a more believable character.

I like playing these characters who are just on the edge of ridiculous but always grounded in reality. I would never want to come across as a cartoon.

I feel it's very important for an actor to believe in the character that he/she is playing and do full justice to it in order to convince others that you are the character you are portraying.

I remember when I was a kid, I loved Sherlock Holmes. I thought Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the greatest writers, because I felt I knew Sherlock Holmes. He existed to me. When I went to England the first thing I did was go to Baker Street to look for his house. I think you've got to try to make all of your characters as empathetic and realistic as possible.

It doesn't matter how beautifully a film is photographed. The acting tells your story. It's what people relate to. If you don't believe the characters, it doesn't work.

I don't worry about whether a character is likable, as long as the character is believable.

Something just happens when you read a part. You know, if you'd like to do it or if you don't believe it.

I think when your image becomes so big that it's hard for a viewer to see a character, then I think you're in danger as an actor of being unable to perform what you should be doing.

All an actor has is their blind faith that they are who they say they are today, in any scene.

I think all great comedies - or at least the comedies I like - it has some of the funniest moments, but it never breaks the spell for the audience. It never pushes the audience away by spoofing itself too much or undermining the characters or making them cardboard or flimsy. Everybody is really trying to do what their characters believe in - and so nobody breaks the spell of the world, even though in other ways it's a comedy and very funny.

I think, whenever you're doing anything, you don't want anyone anywhere to watch it and think that what your character is doing is ridiculous. You don't want anyone to watch it and go, 'Oh my God, that's just fortuitous.'

Every character, if fleshed out properly, is being taken seriously.

I hate stories in which a person has an occupation and you never see him working at it, like all those marvelous Cary Grant movies where he's a surgeon, and you never see him in the operating room.

I don't know - the whole leading man, I don't buy it.