Role Limitation Quotes

Sometimes, I might not be able to show all of the work that I've put in because I've got a certain role. I've had openings and my teammates have done a great job of finding me and it's on me to convert them.

There is so much freedom I enjoy in theatre. In films, the roles are limited.

Television allowed me to kick the Hollywood habit of typing an actor in certain roles.

I had come to the point when I realized it was unlikely that my film career was going to move beyond a certain level of role. And I was - because I had graphic instances of it - handicapped by the success of Star Trek. A director would say, 'I don't want Jean-Luc Picard in my movie' - and this was compounded by X-Men as well.

If I were to wait only for roles that clarify my racial makeup, I'd be waiting for a very, very long time.

After being sworn in to office, vice presidents have usually been relegated to the sidelines, where they just don't get to do very much.

When I was on 'One Life to Live,' I always wanted to delve into my character, Layla, to find out why she was the black sheep of the family. I so wanted to have some edge. I have no idea why there was a reluctance to do that or why we so rarely see it.

I'm a little concerned I'm always going to be playing a black guy, you know what I'm saying?

Since I am a turbaned Sardar, I can only play Sardar roles. Either that or producers should be willing to alter the script to accommodate my physical appearance. But I won't call this a restriction.

No, the type-casting didn't happen until after Star Trek. I don't think that you get typecast until you've been cast!

Once you do one bad guy, usually all you get offered is bad guys. But I've been able to do different things.

I'm trying to fight typecasting as hard as I can, while I have time.

If I only get to play Malaysian roles, there wouldn't be very many roles for me to play.

I don't think I'm ever really going to run the risk of disappearing into a Marvel franchise. I just don't know how I would fit into a catsuit.

I think you get the parts that people are comfortable with seeing you play.

You can get pigeonholed in Hollywood and people think of you in a certain way.

After the series 'Roc' ended, every role offer I got was for the wise-cracking, ne'er-do-well brother or boyfriend, and I could have made a very good career doing those characters.

I can remember, actually, seeing the film 'Oliver!' and understanding so badly that I wanted to play that part, but that I would never be able to because I was a 'girl' and Oliver was a 'boy.'

A lot of times [in the movie industry], women are relegated to playing the wife or girlfriend or daughter.

I started as an actor in the theater playing a lot of character parts, and suddenly, I found myself in this place where it felt like I was getting locked into a kind of a stereotype, and it did bother me.

I'm sure all actors have trouble. The guy who always plays the funny guy, he wants to be taken seriously. And there's the action guy who wants to do serious stuff. Everyone's grass is greener.

I don't want to be pigeon-holed as a firefighter.

Because I was fast, technical, and could dribble well, it was always the easy thing to label me just a winger and have me stick to that.

If you are a nurturing mother, and a good one, you can go to play groups, sit on the floor and play all the games, and have tea with the other mothers, but wouldn't you like to think that's not all there is? That you haven't hung up your high heels without knowing how to walk in them?

Contemporarily, we struggle with people worried about representation sometimes. It's a burden, as artists, that we take on that limits the work. It limits the characters people play. It limits the roles they want to do.