On-Screen Success Quotes

I did a year of 'Guiding Light', and I was going to be a movie actor or a stage actor, but not a TV actor. That just wasn't going to happen. And obviously, things changed so remarkably.

My hopes and aspirations haven't changed since I started in this business. They've been to be able to play drama, to be able to play comedy, to be able to play leading men, and to be able to play character roles. I have no other aspirations in this regard.

I'd maybe done about 12 movies when I decided that this was what I was going to do.

My biggest accomplishment was playing 'Lark' on the daytime drama Port Charles because it was the most regular acting job I have had, and I had to step in and fill someone else's shoes.

You know, I really wish now I'd had the nerve to become an actor. Because I'd have been Robert Redford, no question.

I just wanted to be a guy who could earn a living as an actor, and I did that for a long time.

Eric McCormack is directing talent waiting to happen.

Prior to doing a 'Bond' film, I was a young actor doing classical theater and some BBC dramas. Then, suddenly, I was thrown into this franchise. I had never experienced anything like it.

How do you explain certain physical qualities that somehow sell on screen? You're born with it... Certain people are just more watchable, and I was more watchable, but I don't think I understood acting or drama very well when I was a kid.

I didn't really have any aspirations to do TV when I first decided to be an actor.

Film actors reach a certain level, but they don't get beyond it unless they work in the theater.

I replaced Jim Garner in 'Maverick.' I replaced George Sanders in 'The Saint.' I've replaced everybody.

If you have a good thing going behind the scenes, you'll have a good thing going on-screen.

When I auditioned for 'Wedding Crashers,' the producers had never seen any of my other work except for Bond. I got 'Wedding Crashers' partly because I was a Bond girl.

I have been told that I was well-utilised in my first film, but I was too young.

Not many people know my father was an actor. He was the Artful Dodger in 'Oliver!,' and was in a film called 'Frauds,' too. It's interesting talking to him about acting, how much you can get turned down, and how not to take that as a discouragement. It's nice to have that element to relate to for us both.

I used my television phase to save myself as an actor for the bigger screen.

People talk a lot about, 'You're a Disney princess! You're Cinderella!' and this and that. But for me, it's all about the fact that I worked with Cate Blanchett and was directed by Kenneth Branagh. That's the 'Cinderella' story for me.

It's every actor's dream to be called the character's name.

To work in your first film, in your debut as a lead, to work with the finest artists of the country - who doesn't want to do that?

You know, I was a kid when I went into 'Coronation Street' and I had an amazing time. I got some fantastic opportunities from Corrie and from 'Soapstar' and I'd never say they did anything other than help me.

I can't really attribute my success onscreen to any formula and suggest you "do this or that" to make it as an actor.

You can be as beautiful and charming as you'd like, but if you're not terrific at acting, it will mean nothing on the screen.

Most child actors were lucky enough to get the part in the first place.

I have been quite lucky as an actor to have managed to play different kinds of roles.