Role Refusal Quotes

I don't like to do what I call 'the grunters' - a character who sits at a table and grunts and young people make fun of. I turn a lot of those down.

It's not like I don't want to play the guy next door. But sometimes they're not the best written or the most complicated. But I am very, very particular about my bad boys. There are certain types of characters I will not play. I've said no so many times to so many parts that are just way too dark. You have to be careful.

I think as far as straight actors playing gay roles, "Brokeback Mountain" was a big breakthrough. I'm pretty sure when they were casting that movie that - I think the story is, like you know, 10 to 15 other actors turned it down.

I was offered the Gene Hackman role in 'The Poseidon Adventure' four times, and I turned it down four times. I didn't want to do that movie. I called it the upside down boat.

After 'Satya,' the industry could not think of me as anything but the villain. They were stereotyping me on the basis of my looks. I lost so much money refusing such roles - the purchase of a new house got delayed by seven years because I said no.

If they had offered me James Bond, I probably couldn't have gone to England anymore in my life. James Bond with an accent? That would have been something.

I've never understood why you would turn down a great role.

I can't play a slave.

I wouldn't want to play Miss Hannigan. I'm not a villain. She's mean to little children! I can't do that. That would disrupt my brand.

I'm probably not going to play a junkie and that's OK because there are other people who will do it better.

I've refused roles because they're too simplistic.

After the Shah's departure from Iran, I will not become a president nor accept any other leadership role. Just like before, I limit my activities only to guiding and directing the people.

There was recently a story out that I turned down a role in a major franchise. That's not true. I refused to audition for it. I didn't get the part. I didn't even go in because I thought that the part was just a repackaged version of the parts I played before in these young adult films - sort of moody, masculine, but sensitive and all this kind of thing. It was just a repackaged, rather dull thing.

After the release of 'Ashta Chemm,' several producers and directors came with similar roles in their films. But I doesn't want to do stereo type roles and do something different for each film, and refused them.

I'm a right pain in the hole for my agent. I won't take certain parts if I think they're offensive or banal. For instance, I won't do a film if I think it's full of violence for violence's sake, or a television drama if I don't think it's intelligent writing.

I wasn't interested in playing the hot-girl role.

I won't play a teenager.

I got so far away from what they told you in acting class: Do something different. Producers kept offering me the 'Sister Act' movie, but I said, 'My fans don't want to see me in a wimple.' I literally said, 'My fans don't want to see me in a wimple.'

I will never go to the Centre. I have never been an aspirant for any post or for any role at the Centre.

I have been waiting around to get the right script and the right director. For example, in the past, if a Hollywood director came to me with a script and wanted me to play a character, and she was a stereotypical Asian woman who gets into a fight and gets killed off quickly, that didn't seem to have much interest for me.

But I don't want to be a pirate!

I have to be careful not to do so many comedy airhead roles from now on. I've turned down a couple already.

There are others who take up that (liberating) role. I have no time to spend for that.

I was offered daily soaps in the past but that was something I did not want to take up.

As a young actor, I played a lot of 'exotic' parts and was stuck with the tag 'sultry.' I had to refuse such parts if I were ever to play anything else. It did the trick, but my agent feared it made me harder to cast.