Top 44 Vincent Cassel Quotes

My character in ‘La Haine,’ he’s not bad; he’s unhappy, and usually, people are like that. Most of us are angry.

From my point of view, I’m a totally normal person! Really! I have a family. I have kids. I have a house… I don’t have a dog.

My father is best known for his light comedies, and I’m best known for crazy bad guys with short tempers.

I still wear my trousers baggy as I did in my teens. But in a different way. I’ve loved trainers since my youth – limited edition, vintage, whatever. You could recognise people and judge their character through their trainers. I’m a Nike man.

I love French style from the Thirties and Forties. French movie stars like Jean Gabin and Yves Montand had so much natural, effortless style.

I always compare human beings to animals. It’s a nice way to figure out who they are.

I’m producing more, but I think to direct, one has to have a burning desire, and that’s not me. I’d rather do something else.

The idea of telling a story in reverse destabilises your ordinary moral reactions. That’s one of the points of art – to challenge your preconceptions.

I feel to look for perfection is a very dangerous path. More than that, it’s dangerous because it doesn’t exist. You can aim for it, but you already know you won’t get there because it doesn’t exist. Plus, I definitely think the flaws, little cracks, and accidents are a lot more interesting.

As a younger actor, I had delusions. I would dream of Scorsese and De Niro; I would meet people, and it would be like this, and it would change moviemaking in France, and Paris would become the center of the world.

I think it’s much harder to have a long dialogue scene than an action scene. An action scene is long, but it’s not really hard. It’s kind of boring, really. It looks good at the end, but to shoot it, it’s not the most exciting thing.

In Italy, it is difficult to see a film in the original language because the voice actors here are a mafia.

When you see violence in movies in general, it’s very quick and painless, which isn’t what it’s like.

Actually, I never work in movies for money. I’m glad when I get well-paid, but it’s not always the case – trust me.

What came out of ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ is actually great because you do one ‘Ocean’s Twelve,’ and you’re more known around the world than if you did 20 years in the French cinema industry.

You can’t escape from what you are.

The day after I had my licence to drive, I made Paris/Nice at 230 km/hour.

I’m a little angry in life.

There’s only so much you can control in life.

I did direct two short movies. I learned many things, and one of the things I learned was that I am not a director. It has to be visceral, and it’s not for me. I feel much more comfortable acting.

I have a tendency to think that when you portray baddies in movies, they come out more human than good guys.

French men can be very tough too, you know… Real bad boys move in silence, as we know, so you don’t have to be loud and muscular to be scary, actually.

Since I was a child, I have had this feeling that the most important work I’d do would be with my family.

There is this idea that it’s very different from the French point of view to work in America blah, blah, blah. But I think it’s different from one person to the other, not from one country to the other.

I think American audiences like gangster movies. You know, it’s part of the culture.

I spent a lot of time in boarding school. This is something I will never do to my kids. I think if you’re having kids, then you have to take care of them; otherwise, what’s the point? There are many things that parents say are good for the kids, but the truth is they say that because it is good for the parents.

I’ve always loved the idea of changing myself, wearing costumes and disguises. It takes you back to being a kid, to dressing up.

I spent a whole year in New York without going back to France. And I always came back because my mother was living in New York since I was 13. So I went to summer camps, hang out at the Roxy, go to class for ballet, so I always had part of my life in New York.

I used to be more self-conscious about style because when you’re younger, you want to exist, you want to show everything you do.

I come from an acting family, my father was an actor, and I had to fight my way and just create my own identity.

Working with David Cronenberg or Darren Aronofsky or even Steven Soderbergh isn’t really like a typical Hollywood movie. These are true artists, and have a certain amount of freedom when they work, and they’re more like independent filmmakers making their way through big studios.

I was thinking of going to London drama schools or to New York, because France didn’t accommodate the things I wanted to do in film.

I know that what I see in every religious person is not something I want to teach my kids.

If I have to pretend to be anything else than French, then I know it’s work for me. It’s not that it scares me, but it’s work. I cannot just pop up on the set and say ‘Okay, today I’m Italian!’

I’m really proud of ‘Oceans 12.’ Of course, you do an ‘Oceans’ movie, you get known all over the world. It’s an incredibly powerful medium: It’s a Hollywood-identified blockbuster.

To work with somebody you love makes filming faster, more fun.

Cronenberg’s a lot of fun, and that a lot of people don’t know watching his movies. He doesn’t take himself seriously. He’s still reinventing himself.

I’m actually beginning to believe that there is something in common among all of my characters. I’m not sure what it is exactly. But I guess that something is me.

Every movie, especially when you get involved… takes something out of you. You learn something, but you give something to the movie. And after the movie, if the experience has been intense and a true experience, you’re a little different afterward.

I love to act. And between action and cuts, when you work for somebody great, it’s wonderful, and I still love it. The moment where you create, that instant is still magic to me. But, all the rest, I get bored with it – all the waiting, and the fact that you have to make appearances, that you have to share your life.

Hollywood, for me, is the studios. It’s a way to produce. It’s a different way to make movies, and I never took part in that.

People ask me where I live most of the time, and it’s kind of complicated for me to answer, because I’m not really sure. It’s somewhere in between London, Rome, Paris, and Rio.

The minute I started being recognised, I became much more discreet.

I have learned that acting is not about beauty.