Top 50 Rupert Friend Quotes

I’ve never got a part in the same way twice. I’ve never prepared the same way. I’ve never experienced the filming the process the same way.

I can only go places because I know that I can go away from them, if that makes sense. I like the gypsy lifestyle that filming affords.

I was bullied a lot… doing anything overly well was punished by the kids.

I’m a bit of a technophobe.

I don’t think the idea of working in Hollywood really exists anymore. I think you work in films, and where the film is shot is where it’s shot. The studio system doesn’t really exist.

That routine thing is not comforting to me. It’s the opposite to that.

One of my uncles took me to my first movie in a cinema – ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.’

I find it easier to approach things from a critical angle that otherwise may seem daunting because I’m used to being scared.

‘We’ is a difficult word for me. I don’t know if I feel ‘we’ about anything.

The accent in England can change literally from street to street, and people have this sort of feudal tribalism whereby you can identify somebody’s provenance by their voice.

I get bored quickly. Always have. Short attention span.

I’ve never got on with recipes. Free yourself – throw them out!

I love learning things, whether it’s a language or Philippine knife-fighting or the Viennese waltz.

I am a very sporadic watcher of television. I don’t watch a lot of it.

I believe that if you can discover something of the truth of a person, then you will start to understand, and to understand is to move towards, if not like, then at least an empathy of some kind.

I find the English flag – the cross – quite frightening; it has very bad symbolism for me. Not just football hooligans but supremacists and the BNP.

All I would say is that when I’ve been very down or having kind of a tough time in my life, certain films or pieces of music or books have changed that. They’ve taken me out of a dark place and put me into a more positive one. And I think that if we can do that for people, then it’s certainly worth doing.

Becoming that guy who does one thing is not very interesting. I’m lucky and proud to have been involved in period films and action films.

I wasn’t interested in football. It made me different. I wore glasses, had bad hair, a funny name, you name it.

I really enjoy the fact that the very boring, normal person that I am isn’t kind of interesting to anyone. It’s fine by me.

Han Solo is more interesting than Superman because he’s flawed. Superman’s flaw is kryptonite, and that’s it. He can make time go backwards, for God’s sake, but with Han Solo or Indiana Jones, there’s a bit of humanity there.

We have characters in Western television shows who are in full health with shiny hair and shiny teeth, and they go about their lives having minor problems.

I only do the press for the work. I don’t have a publicist. I don’t go to events or self-promote or endorse things or whatever it is people are meant to do in that world.

Growing up in England, you’re sort of spoiled, in a way. You sort of take it for granted that within a half-hour’s drive, you could be walking around a stately home from the 1700s. It’s not very hard to do – in California, you’ve got to take a flight!

I like Scottish people because they feel very true. They’re always level and straight. They get a reputation for being hardened because of it, but I find them to be scrupulously honest people.

I find it quite unsettling if I’m doing the same thing that I did yesterday.

My father started his own business, and before that was a freelance lecturer, and my friends are artists and musicians; they don’t have real jobs – none of us have real jobs.

My auditions for drama school were miserable, but one thing I had on my side, although I had no experience or skill or training, was that I wanted to learn everything.

I don’t think you can decide how famous or not you become.

I have to be absolutely drawn to the project. If you’re ashamed or bored by it at the beginning, it’s going to be a pretty nightmarish thing.

I was asked by this British band called Kairos 4Tet to write lyrics for them. And I wrote lyrics for them. The album is called ‘Everything We Hold,’ and you can hear my lyrics.

My great grandparents are Scottish, and I have this very tenuous connection which I try and bump up whenever I can, because I’d much rather be Scottish than English.

I find dipping one’s toe into all of these people’s lives is one of the major exciting points of being an actor. This dilettantism.

I never want to overstay my welcome for any character. I would rather people are excited by the ideas a character generates in them rather than feeling bored and wishing he would just go away.

There are two qualities that I’ve noticed in good directors: One is that they have their vision very strongly in place; and two is that they listen to everyone’s opinion and still remember their vision.

What theatre people love about theatre – and I totally understand it, I just don’t share it – is that they feel they mint something afresh every night. Because I would rather do something until I’ve done it and then know it’s done. New day, next thing!

I’m a terrible dancer.

It’s all very brilliant to build bridges and buildings, but long after we’re gone, it will be the natural things in this world which will still be here.

I’ve never thought it was a good idea to act back-to-back.

The old saying, ‘An army marches on its stomach’ has never been more true than in film and television. If it’s good, cheerful, and exciting and full of great yummy things, then everyone does really well. If it’s the opposite, it’s very disappointing.

My grandfather, who is English, was a member of a gentleman’s club called the Caledonian, which you can only be a member of if you have Scottish lineage.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are an incredible place.

I’m a big fan of imagination. I think it’s the strongest tool we have, and there are some things that you just can’t practice.

I don’t do glamorous things.

I grew up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere in England and got out as soon as I could!

Everybody has many people inside of them; I think we tend to present the one we feel is most appropriate at first, in order to gain acceptance or achieve what we want. It gets really interesting when this technique fails, and other levels are revealed.

I would say that being open to new things is kind of vital in this line of work, if not all lines of work, and being prepared to embrace the challenge of the new thing is something I want in my life until the day it’s over.

This industry is too bonkers to understand. Every single part is completely different.

‘On the Road’ completely changed the way I looked at what you could do with your life.

Edinburgh is so cultural and such a beautiful place to walk around.