I didn't work for a year and a half after 'Melvin and Howard' because all I was being offered was silly parts.
In my first few years as an actor, I took one terrible TV job after another. But even as I laughed off my awful roles and made fun of myself to friends, my work made me cringe - I dreaded anyone's seeing it. I was crushed that I wasn't doing anything I was proud of.
This is a grueling profession. Either you can't get work, or you can't get certain kinds of parts, or you get a part, and it kills you because it's not good enough, or you get successful and feel guilty about it.
One of the biggest dangers in Hollywood is becoming typed.
A lot of times, I'll get roles where it's the dumb blonde or the cheerleader, and I just have no interest - and it can be a great movie, it really can - or the mean girl; those things don't intrigue me much.
I don't think I ever got parts that interested me. Well, I did occasionally, but more often than not, they did not interest me.
That was my one big Hollywood hit, but, in a way, it hurt my picture career. After that, I was typecast as a lion, and there just weren't many parts for lions.
I've spent a lot of time playing roles that didn't really challenge me. I suppose every actor feels that way.
I have been given a lot of roles that are downtrodden, mammy-ish. A lot of lawyers or doctors who have names but absolutely no lives. You're going to get your three or four scenes; you're not going to be able to show what you can do.
