Historical Drama Quotes

Everything in 'The Tudors' is initially based on my historical research, and the fact is that the most unlikely scenes were the ones which were probably most based on reality. I prefer to be as real as possible, and there is so much of that story that you just can't make up.

I remember watching Cate Blanchett in 'Elizabeth' and feeling like for the first time - even though that time period wasn't happening now - that I believed that role.

'Baahubali' is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But no, I don't think I'm particularly drawn to the period roles or the medieval roles.

As an audience, if you see 1800s or something, it more often seems that the actors are carrying the weight of the time. It always has a Shakespearean tone to it. To me, that always feels very theatrical and very unrelatable.

When I first read the script for 'A Little Chaos,' I just loved reading it, as it is a really lovely, accessible, contemporary period film.

'12 Years a Slave' was very powerful, very moving, and deserved all of the acclaim it did get.

I've always wanted to do a role based on a real-life person.

Nothing will ever top 'The Wire.' It was historical. It was black cinema.

I would love to do a period film and work with Shyam Benegal.

A skillful playwright might have a good time with the story of the assassination of President William McKinley, and especially with the three most flamboyant political figures involved: Mark Hanna, Theodore Roosevelt, and Emma Goldman.

When I was 16, I was in a film called 'The Patriot.' I spent every second I could on the set watching the director and his team bring America circa 1775 to life. From that moment on, I was hooked.

I'm thinking about doing a First World War film.

The only thing that surprised me about 'Lincoln' is that most of the critics who reviewed the film seem not to have grasped what should have been apparent right from the start, which is that 'Lincoln' is at bottom a play with pictures, not a screenplay.

I deliberately, in a way, went for something that was a huge challenge and was a big period film. I was excited about the canvas on which I could tell the story as much as the story itself.

'Beatrice Cenci' was an amazing film. If it were released today it'd win Best Picture. It's so well done, it's so contemporary, and the filmmaking is so smart.

I did this film with Russell Crowe called 'The Water Diviner,' which took place just after WWI. It was fascinating because the weapons between WWI and WII were very different. I had to learn how to ride horses in a battle setting. It was important that we rode a certain way.

Playing Mark Antony in 'Rome' will always be a favourite of mine because he was such an outrageously big and interesting character to play. Also, the fact that we were able, with that character, to find out and present the public with a biography of that man that had not been really seen before.

Accuracy is paramount in every detail of a work of history. Here's my rule: Ask yourself, 'Did this thing happen?' If the answer is yes, then it's historical. Then ask, 'Did this thing happen precisely this way?' If the answer is yes, then it's history; if the answer is no, not precisely this way, then it's historical drama.

'Pompeii' will be PG-13. I think it has to have a level of violence and death in it because you've got a volcano exploding. But it will be another PG-13 movie.

You get films like 'Baahubali' once in your life. And Amrendra Bahubali is a character that I can never forget.

There's been more written about Lincoln than movies made about him or television portraying him. He's kind of a stranger to our industry, to this medium. You have to go back to the 1930s to find a movie that's just about Abraham Lincoln. I just found that my fascination with Lincoln, which started as a child, got to the point where after reading so much about him I thought there was a chance to tell a segment of his life to to moviegoers.

I love the flamboyance, the melodrama, the bloody theatre of Russian history.

I'd done the method bit before from, like, age 15 to 19. I was a Civil War re-enactor.

During the late '50s, I had worked on the script of Ben-Hur in an office next to that of the producer Sam Zimbalist.