Top 20 James Cromwell Quotes

I don’t know how many parts I’ve lost because a lot of the politics in California are very conservative, and I’m fairly outspoken. I always tried to get as much politics in as I could, because I do believe in class struggle, and I think that’s what’s left out.

I think the obligation of an artist is to make a difference in the world. That is what matters most to me. I think that artists are the leaders of the world because they do not have a connection to the industrial complex, the day-to-day short-term survival that most people are involved with.

But if you really want to learn about life, get a cat. The way I think people should relate to animals is with a cat. Because the world is his.

I always change my words in everything I do. I make the language fit, because I know the character from the inside out. Often character actors are not in a position to do that, but I do it. I don’t change any cue and I never change anybody else’s lines, but I make my own words fit my mouth.

I was going to design sports cars, but my father came to my college to visit me. At the time he was making a picture in Sweden and he took me there with him. I got to see Ingmar Bergman’s company and I thought, ‘Gee, filmmaking is a lot more fun than sports cars,’ so I decided to follow him and go into acting.

You don’t just one day say, ‘That’s it, I’m doing this, I’m going to throw all my shoes out and I’m not eating honey and I won’t drive my car because there are animal bones in the tires…’ because you’d drive yourself around the bend.

The Academy Awards were basically created by the industry to promote pictures. They weren’t really to acknowledge the performances. Then it became sort of this a great popularity contest and now, it’s an incredible show and it’s seen all over the world.

Often we’re recreating what we think we’re supposed to be as human beings. What we’ve been told we’re supposed to be, instead of who we authentically are. The key about the creation of full self-expression is to be authentically who you are, to project that.

My definition of a character actor is – they never get the girl.

There is something intrinsically, systemically wrong with white, western culture, and if we don’t fix it, it won’t continue.

I auditioned for ‘Revenge Of The Nerds,’ and I so did not want the picture. I didn’t want it. I didn’t want be in anything that had nerds anywhere.

I was told by my agent that a number of big stars won’t work with anyone two inches taller than them and most of them are under six feet, so you have to be prepared to have trouble.

All of them – my father, mother, step-mother, and grandmother – were all wonderful actors and performers and they are an inspiration to me, both in their craft and in their humanity.

‘Barney Miller’ was a lot of fun. I’m very fond of Abe Vigoda. Most – a lot of people on that cast – I really liked.

I started in theatre. I was at Cleveland and I went to London for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth.

‘Jamie’ is what my mother gave me, and that takes the onus off of being big. Somebody thinks, ‘Oh, Jamie – how threatening can he be?’

The attitude we have towards our personal pets as opposed to the animals that suffer under the factory farm is hypocritical and delusional.

I don’t study films particularly. I plan to direct, but I’m not watching film – I watch the entire film to see how the story goes, but I don’t say, ‘Oh, so he does a slow pan here, or he pulls here, watch the crane shot, or look at the composition,’ because it’s got to be my eye.

Anybody can call me Jamie, and you have to watch it when you call me James. Then there’s going to be a problem.

I’m an animal rights activist because I believe we won’t have a planet if we continue to behave toward other species the way we do.