Television allowed me to kick the Hollywood habit of typing an actor in certain roles.
I'm stunned that people keep asking me to play characters I didn't expect to play.
I don't want to do panel games or adverts. I really like challenges. I always get roles as an art teacher or a photographer. In the future I want to play something like a mugger/assassin/pastry chef.
When a man no longer confuses himself with the definition of himself that others have given him, he is at once universal and unique. He is universal by virtue of the inseparability of his organism from the cosmos. He is unique in that he is just this organism and not any stereotype of role, class, or identity assumed for the convenience of social communication.
Mum asks why I am so often cast in adulterous roles. I think it must be because I am fairly flirty.
It's often women who are writing leading roles for women. Most of the stuff that comes my way is not actually about women. I'm just asked to be a supporting player in a story about a man, and I, frankly, was not interested in doing that.
I was so tired of the parts I had to play. There seems little for me in Hollywood, because, rather than real Chinese, producers prefer Hungarians, Mexicans, American Indians for Chinese roles.
I don't know what it is about me that gets cast in specific roles. Some people would say, 'You're just a pretty face,' but on 'Battlestar,' I'm not looking pretty every day. I'm pretty banged up.
People obsess about casting and representation, but really, all the real work is behind the camera. Casting an Asian American into a bad role where they're shoehorned into these stereotypes is worse than not having cast them at all.
I don't want to be Mr. Romantic Leading Man. I don't want to be the Dance Dude. I don't want to be the Action Guy. If I had to do any one of those all my life, it'd drive me crazy.
I'm in show business, and we have a long history here of making movies about law enforcement officers. If you're my age, and you're male, and you're trying to get work, you're going to run into those roles as opposed to having a long run of playing dancers.
I play the Wicked Queen in 'Snow White.' I'm not typecast. It's terrible. I should be Prince Charming.
In New York I was always offered the hot, sexy roles. But in L.A. I was offered the plain, dowdy roles. It says a lot about the difference between the coasts.
If I don't work very often, it's because what I read is written for formidable actresses, but actresses who make a habit of playing with their cup half full.
There would always be scripts that came along that I turned down, like Gang Member #5 - roles that were just stereotypes.
I've always tried to stay away from playing Jews. I get like 20 Holocaust scripts a month, but I hate the genre.
When actors do anti-hero roles, they are critically acclaimed. When heroines do negative roles, they are sidelined from the industry.
