With any project, but especially in television, I always try to look at where the character is starting from and where he's going to end up, and try to find the biggest arc that makes it the most exciting to play.
I have absolutely no interest in playing the young male lead around which a story happens.
I have things planned for every character like what they're doing down the road and coming to different realizations but I don't have how they overlap.
When you're doing a movie, it's finite - you have a trajectory of where your character's going, and you follow that. Then the storybook closes.
Usually when you have a sequel, the character always stays the same and that's true basically of 'Rocky III,' 'IV' and 'V.' He didn't really change.
I tend to relate to a character in terms of the arc: what's interesting is where he starts versus where he ends up.
I can always tell when a filmmaker doesn't care about his or her characters; they just care about setting them up to kill them off.
Plots are artificial. Does your life have a plot? It has characters. There is a narrative. There's a lot of story, a lot of character. But plot? Eh, no.
I like a character that is still alive and is necessarily thinking, and either grows or diminishes or whatever.
If you end up growing a character too quickly, you don't have anywhere to go after that point.
