I enjoy storytelling. I like to write it, I like to direct it, I like to act in it, I like to produce it. I like to be around storytellers. That’s what excites me.
Every experience feeds an actor, and I’ve learned that depression is all around us.
In order to be an actor you really have to be one of those types of people who are risk-takers and have what is considered an actor’s arrogance, which is not to say an arrogance in your personal life. But you have to be the type of person who wants the ball with seconds left in the game.
When you play a non-fiction character it is more responsibility than when you are playing a fiction character because that person lived, and you do want to pay respect to that.
What used to frustrate me going into an audition was that some inexperienced, lesser casting people would think that actors are acting only when they’re speaking.
My personal feeling, if I can interject a political note, is that I don’t think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn’t be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world.
It’s like a dance, to choreograph a fight is like a dance. It’s very specific. You have to carefully plan it out. Because if someone gets hurt, then we didn’t do our job, someone screwed up. The fight choreographers and the actors involved, we messed up somewhere.
I think the best-written films or television series have a measure of the opposite of what they are.
I enjoy doing comedy for the fact that you go to work and you laugh. That’s a good combination.
It’s in our nature to be intrigued. We’re putting the bread crumb not in your mouth but close to your mouth. You reach a little bit, and that’s why it works.
That’s the reason you want to become a star as an actor, to be able to have more control of your destiny.
If you like vanilla, you’re not going to like ‘Breaking Bad’ – you need to like a specific flavor that is unusual, that is different, that takes risks.
I admit, I do a lot of projects, but it’s because I’m in a position now where I’m reading a lot more scripts and plays and things, and I’m really listening to offers and trying to think what I want to do at any given time.
Take a chance. Take a risk. Find that passion and rekindle it. Fall in love all over again. It’s really worth it.
What’s interesting is a man with no facial hair is less intimidating than a man with facial hair, and a man who is bald is more intimidating than a man with hair.
There’s boldness in being assertive; there’s strength and confidence.
When I was a kid there were a very select few channels – programmes had to have more of a large appeal and they just didn’t offer very much. Now you have a situation where the television world has expanded and there’s hundreds of channels.
The TV business is like the produce section of the market. Today everything is fresh and glistening and firm. And tomorrow, when they find a bruise on you, they toss you out.
Actors basically are the type of person that with three seconds left, we want the ball. Give us the shot to make it or miss it. We’ll take the lumps if we miss it, but we want the chance to get the glory.
When you’re an actor in grade school, high school, college, whatever, you start to realize what you’re really good at, what you’re kinda good at, what you’re okay at, and you start to compartmentalize. But if you know yourself and what you’re capable of, it’s just a matter of opportunity.