Character Perception Quotes

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.

I suppose that the sympathetic/unsympathetic debate about characters sometimes feels to me like a misstatement of purpose. I always think of truly complex characters are falling between the cracks in that debate.

I am an artist, and I have a lot more to offer than just being a one-dimensional character, and I think our audience sees that and understands that - they're behind it.

I think we're so advanced when it comes to watching narrative material. I mean, it's all we do is consume content all day long. So when a character walks onscreen, you immediately start making connections for that character: Is that a good guy? Is that a bad guy?

People like Superman, The Flash - they just feel limited in who they are and what you can do with them because everyone knows who they are and what they do. Someone like Animal Man feels very open to interpretation.

Nothing beats an 'Archers' fan for their levels of devotion. I think it's because it's radio, and you obviously conjure up an image of the character that is so powerful.

Hip-hop is so much about character and caricature that people just see you as a character. Very rarely are you flesh and bone to people.

I can be a teddy bear, but more people tend to see me as the other side of the coin, and that has to do with casting, more Iago than Hamlet. But I don't play villains; I play people doing the right thing for the circumstances and time.

Oscar is the exact opposite of how I think you should behave. I just think of it as a negative view of the positive mind I have. Big Bird is sweet and nice and also sympathetic, as kids can identify with him even though he looks like such a bizarre character - great 8 feet 2 inches, a beak 18 inches long.

When I read interviews with people like Kevin Barry or Colin Barrett, who I hugely admire, they don't really seem to come up against the question of likeability even though their characters, in some instances, are really horrible.

I'm sure part of the baggage that I bring having played a lot of villains is also pertinent to the movie [Before I Go To Sleep], because I'm sure people look at me and think, "Oh, I'm not sure I trust him or not."

Even Christoph Waltz's character, Colonel Landa in 'Inglourious Basterds', I never judged him.

One of the nicest compliments I would get very often on the street is people would say, 'I love you on 'The Good Wife.' I just can't tell whether I should like you or hate you!'

Before it was revealed that my character on 'Lost' had a troubled history, a fan came up to me and said, 'Wow, you're a really nice guy.' To me, that was a compliment, having played a very villainous guy.

I don't have the body or the face for romantic comedies, so I've never been offered those. The challenge is that a lot of people see you only as your last character, so you're constantly competing with whatever your last movie was.

The comics I read as a kid were much more influenced by TV and movies. Encountering superheroes as an adult without that kind of childhood sentimentality, it just doesn't allow you, or in my case at least, it wouldn't let me take the characters seriously.

Space Jam was weird because everybody has their own perception of what Bugs Bunny should sound like. Everybody. Somebody would just stick their head in the door and say, "He sounds too Jewish." Or, "He's too tough, he's off-putting. You gotta seduce kids, not scare them out the door."

Every woman is a character - but people need to see I'm a regular human. It's like you wear a pink wig and you're no longer human all of sudden.

If a character is supposed to be hated, my goal is to make her the most hated person on the show.

I loved Hank Kingsley. He was very real to me. There was just something about that character. I really believed him. I didn't think he was a buffoon. I understood the inner workings of him, so I sort of felt sorry for him, the poor guy. He was very important to me.

I love Crowley for being an audacious man at certain point in time. I think he's greatly misunderstood. He was a good guy, but he was portrayed as an evil man, and he wasn't.

There was a time when people were like, 'Oh my God, Sheamus' character is boring.' Well, when you're just in wrestling matches all the time, and you're not doing character stuff, then it can be a bit monotonous.

To me, my characters are more real than most people I meet.

We just really wanted Hit-Girl to be a character who, in a sense, simply happens to be an 11-year-old girl, in the same way that Ripley in 'Alien' could have been a guy, but the part happened to be played by Sigourney Weaver.

A lot of people loved to hate my character on 24. I want to be the character people love to love.