Character Defense Quotes

The safeguards of virtue are hateful to the evil disposed.

Mel Gibson is my friend. I love Mel. He's not the person that I hear people are often trying to diminish. Whatever his challenges are in life, he still remains someone I'm very close to.

Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.

I will always find a defense for characters, and that's why it's fun playing characters that are morally ambiguous, or are at least perceived superficially as being problematic.

I'm not a jerk.

As an actor, you can't judge. A great actress from Spain said, "We, the actors, are lawyers of the characters we play. We have to defend them, no matter what."

I'm not a nasty person.

I am certain that the safest way to defend your character is never to say a word about it.

I am what I am, but I'm not a thief. And I'm not scandalous.

It may...be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.

One of the tricks is to have the exposition conveyed in a scene of conflict, so that a character is forced to say things you want the audience to know - as, for example, if he is defending himself against somebody's attack, his words of defense seem Justified even though his words are actually expository words. Something appears to be happening, so the audience believes it is witnessing a scene (which it is), not listening to expository speeches. Humor is another way of getting exposition across.

I think when you play a role, you always have to be a defense attorney for that character.

You have to defend your character. That's your job, if they're hiring you. That doesn't mean you can't collaborate, but you do have to make some big, bold choices. We do that in real life, too.

I'm always on the side of the characters, rather than the side of the people attacking them. I get realistic. It's not gratuitous.

Listen, I'm always going to defend my character, even when she's doing something that I don't approve of, because that's what you have to do to love them and play them.

I like Steve Bannon. He is a good man. He is not a racist - I can tell you that. He's a good person, and I think the press treats him frankly very unfairly.