Top 620 Roles Quotes

I played teen roles until high definition came out, and I could never understand it. I would go in for adult roles and be older than many of the people auditioning, but they’d cast the girl without a line on her face.

I want to keep doing interesting work with interesting people in whatever form that may take, but I want to play the big parts of classical theatre; I want to go on stage and play great Shakespearean roles and, at the same time, do amazing, challenging indie films and comedy, and I want to do it all. I am greedy.

I never played the right roles, or very rarely got the right roles offered, except on stage.

I like to play smart, three-dimensional women. I also like to play roles where the women are a little crazy. I just have a feel for crazy people.

The essence of my work, and of me, is the softer side of a strong woman, and that goes into a number of different roles.

It wasn’t my intention in going after this part but I suppose now I do. The adult roles are a lot meatier – you’re not always just the daughter or the girlfriend or whatever.

I’ve never really played everyday people. I’ve played realist roles, but not mere daily life. There was always something incredible happening to my characters.

The funny thing is, the girls that I’m always up against for roles are pretty nice and cool, like Emma Watson. She’s awesome.

I always look for roles that make me feel good about being a girl. I have to say that there are a lot of roles out there that make me feel really bad about being a girl. You can imagine what the things are and I shall not go into detail.

You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.

I have earned enough money in my life. When I started my career, for about 10 years, I told myself I want to make money. Now, I just want to do different roles.

I’m definitely more attracted to chaos than to order. The point is, I find the female roles out there very cliche. If we are limited to being only lovers or mothers, we are limiting ourselves.

I love Cate Blanchett. She’s extremely classy and has this knack for taking on roles and being very, very strong, but also embedding vulnerability. She has this relatable quality. I like the path she chose.

I happen to be one who believes very strongly that state and local governments have their proper roles.

I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use more style in theater than in film roles. I love to sink my teeth into a part.

Robert Taylor was not only a splendid actor in a wide variety of roles but one of the most handsome men in the western world.

I want to encounter roles that break the shell and invite me into a new world.

I’ve played some gangster roles, but that’s obviously not me. When you’re an Italian-American New York actor, it’s just an easy way to get cast.

I’ve always done roles that really appealed to me on a gut level and which I found inspiring.

My size is an asset to me. People write roles for me. If I was just another blond-haired, brown-eyed, 18-year-old actor, I’d be left unrecognized. People remember me.

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.

So, if you’re doing good longform with talented people than you can step out and you can be the president or a construction worker and people accept that. It’s really the roles you give yourself.

My first job when I got my equity card was acting in 14 plays back-to-back. Playing that many roles, you look for ways of differentiating the characters physically, which goes hand in hand with understanding them psychologically.

In the West, audiences think I am a stereotyped action star, or that I always play hitmen or killers. But in Hong Kong, I did a lot of comedy, many dramatic films, and most of all, romantic roles, lots of love stories. I was like a romance novel hero.

I love different roles, just getting into it, something that’s the complete opposite of who I am.

And the first commandment of feminism is: I am woman; thou shalt not tolerate strange gods who assert that women have capabilities or often choose roles that are different from men’s.

What I want to do is play roles as a black man, instead of playing black man’s roles. You know?

I’ve played so many different roles over more than 15 years, but I still hope to play more various characters.

Women often find great roles in revolution, simply because the rules fall apart and everyone has agency, anyone can act.

The truth is, after Boys Don’t Cry, I realized how few and far between the great roles are. I am beyond thankful for finding Million Dollar Baby.

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

I’ve refused roles because they’re too simplistic.

No, most of the decisions that I make with regard to taking roles, I just look for something that’s challenging, something that I think I can accomplish, you know.

There is no question that the older you get, the fewer good roles there are.

I’ve tried to choose roles where women are not just reacting or waiting for something to happen.

I think a lot of actors take on fun roles and then they’re lazy or flippant with them. I just can’t do that.

A source of conflict for women everywhere is the pull between reproduction and production. Women worldwide have difficulty in balancing their dual roles as caregivers and providers.

I am so proud of my heritage and of being Latina. I would most definitely consider roles in Latin America.

I tend to turn down roles that are too much like me, what I think is most like me anyhow, because I’m me all the time and I’m sick of it.

I don’t think the relationship between novels and realities are one to one. Of course novels play different roles. It’s essentially just a long narrative form. What you use that long narrative form for can be very different.

I don’t get to play the same role over and over in different movies. The roles that I get to play are quite varied, which is great.

I’m proud of my background, so I hope there will be more roles where Hispanics are being portrayed.

I always felt that a marriage works best at a farm… where you’re together and everybody has clear-cut roles; they have chores, ‘you take care of this’ and you know. But it’s hard.

I am completely grateful and pleased for the attention and the recognition I’ve received for playing the roles that I’ve played.

That’s what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

I would hate to be thrust into the middle of a big film and not deliver. There’s young actors and they’re put into these central roles and they’re commanding armies – but they can’t quite pull it off. I’d much rather do it in small steps and build it from there.

You know, I consistently change in my own life so the roles I’m suitable for also change, and that’s a really nice thing about this profession.

To be completely honest, it’s shocking to me that I keep getting the villain roles! I do not see myself as the villain and I know, growing up, I was the opposite of a villain. I would never try to be a villain to anyone – but maybe other people I grew up with feel differently about that.

It’s tough being able to shift your mind during the years and change roles.

One of my favorite actors is Javier Bardem, he always challenges his previous roles, and basically does the unexpected.

We do need more deaf people in Hollywood. But I don’t think that deaf people always have to play a deaf role. I think we can play different roles. We need to see more diversity period. More people of color. More disabled people. More gender diversity. All kinds of diversity.

Early in my career, I got roles that demanded that I be fit to carry off the angry young man look. Of course, I’m a fitness freak, and that’s something I picked up from my dad.

It’s a political and manipulative industry. Actors vie for the same roles, movies are snatched away. Have I ever been manipulated? Yes. But I haven’t manipulated anyone because if you think from the heart, you cannot be calculative. I have spent nights crying.

I want to play an action hero. I’m ready for roles that totally aren’t me.

I think feminism’s a bit misinterpreted. It was about casting off all gender roles. There’s nothing wrong with a man holding a door open for a girl. But we sort of threw away all the rules, so everybody’s confused. And dating becomes a sloppy, uncomfortable, unpleasant thing.

I can’t worry about whether roles will be there for me when I’m older.

If you go in and audition for roles rather than just be offered them, then you kind of get a chance to kind of discover that you can do something that you didn’t think you could do.

I think part of my reputation has to do with the difficult roles I’ve played. Actors do tend to get identified with their characters.

Being the person I am, you know, the size I am, being a woman, being a black woman, there’s not a lot of roles for us.

There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, ‘Oh, you’re playing yourself.’ I guess it’s kind of a compliment. Or people say, ‘Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.’ The work is to make it look effortless. That’s the hard part.