Characterization Skills Quotes

There are some similarities, I think, with all the characters I play. I'm not a guy who sees the desire to transform with each part; I'm not a piece of clay.

When people ask me about my dialogue, I say, 'Don't you hear people talking?' That's all I do. I hear a certain type of individual, I decide this is what he should be, whatever it is, and then I hear him. Well, I don't hear anybody that I can't make talk.

Sometimes after a compliment about my characterization skills, I'm asked if I model my characters on real people. Emphatically, no. And sort of, yes.

I didn't really look like a character actor, yet those were the roles I loved to play. If you were a character actor who didn't necessarily look like a character actor, you had to play bad guys.

I don't know what I am. I guess you can call me a character actor in the sense that I'll never be an ingenue. You know, that's over. My shot was missed. I take a normal person and make them more of a character. I don't know what that would be called.

I don't have to be a leading man. I can be a character actor. That's really what interests me anyway.

There are a lot of actors who will sit here and talk to you about characters - 'He does this, and she's a really interesting character because she does this.' I'm not like that at all. I'm not an actory actor.

The more I love the character, the harder it is to get it wrong. I have to get to a point that I can speak for them.

To play any character, you have to have a total understanding of why they do what they do.

You can write and write, but if you don't have someone who can nail that character, it's never going to live.

I've just always had a soft spot for character actors.

As writers, we are sketching people all the time when we write fiction.

Whether you need to like a character, I don't think that's necessary in order to portray him.

Even when you are playing someone who is real, you get their mannerisms and you get their little quirks, but, it still has to be something inside of you that connects with the role, or else you will not be any good.

A lot of American actors I work with are in character all day long. You can't talk to them. It's Method and the whole thing.

There are so many ways to approach a character. You have to figure out the similarities between you and the character, build on them, and at the same time, blur the dissimilarities. Since you do it day in and day out, it becomes a process and a part of you.

I think I'm very strong at dialogue, I think I'm very strong in characterization. I think sometimes I use dialogue and character work to cover weaknesses in my plotting.