Roles Quotes

Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles - poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that.

Obviously the first roles that you're proud of are the ones that everybody else liked too.

I was never interested in 'Teen Beat' like roles. I just wanted to work.

Being an actor gives you a chance to play all kinds of roles, very moving and dramatic on one project, silly and girlish on another. That's the most interesting thing out this business, you get to keep reinventing yourself.

There was definitely a moment, a time after 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle', when I did get offered a lot of women in jeopardy-type roles. But I couldn't do it, physically, I just couldn't. But now I know what I know, I wonder if I should have played the whole fame game a little more.

I do all kinds of roles - nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho, nerd, psycho - and occasionally someone kind of normal. It's weird, when I lived in Austin I was always cast as pretty normal people. But when I moved to Los Angeles I was immediately branded a psycho.

I've always chosen incredibly different roles and things that are quite offbeat. That way you're not limited.

I think the roles in television are better for women right now. At this point, I don't want to continue doing the same things I've been doing in film because it's very limited.

The best roles have risks... and those are the parts I'm interested in.

What happens is things come to you - director, script - and if you respond to it, it's because it's tapping into some part of what's inside you, and different roles tap into different parts.

For whatever reason I tend to get roles that are more damaged.

Perhaps I have managed some sort of longevity because I haven't won the lead roles. I don't have the pressure of being a world-famous bombshell that has detonated.

For me, choice is the most important thing because I'm going to be an adult actor pretty soon. So I've got to be choosing the right roles now so that by the time I get to that age there will be wide options available.

The great actresses and actors receive awards for great roles in great films.

Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.

There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.

One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else's shoes. And when I look at the roles I've played, I'm kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I've had and the different things I've learned.

Lead roles are fun, but I'm especially happy other, more colorful supporting stuff has come along.

The girl-next-door image is a sort of joke; for years, I couldn't get any roles other than as somebody dark.

I'm vain enough to want do a movie again, but right now more roles are the last thing on my list.

I don't use my writing career as a vehicle to get me acting work or to write roles for myself.

In TV, when you're doing guest roles, you're gliding into a zone where people are already very comfortable. They go in and go to work every day. You're coming in, and it's a brand-new environment, so you have to get it... and then you're gone again.

It's fun playing two roles. The roles provide a wonderful range of emotions. Stuart is childlike and sensitive. Adam is ruthless, outrageous. He's flamboyant. He does the unexpected.

I was offered one of the roles in a big project that shall remain nameless. I thought the whole thing encouraged violent sex crimes toward women. It made horrible, ghastly rape violence seem sexy. I just didn't want to sign my name to it.

I love roles where I have to transform myself.

The first year with ABT I learned 13 new roles. Most were lengthy ballets, more complicated than I was used to. I have suffered from tendinitis since I was 13, and it flared up again until the pain was paralyzing. There were times I prayed I'd be sick so I wouldn't have to go on.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the UN institution. It's the - the theater of the absurd. It doesn't only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi's Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam's Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament.

I never get the tall, blonde, glamorous roles because I'm not tall, blonde and glamorous. I'm more the wee, disturbing characters because of the way I look or sound.

People think that my favorite roles to do are villains, but I find comedy to be the most challenging and rewarding.

We have a problem now with parents stealing their kids' CDs, so the roles have been reversed.