You take what you know, and you put it through your own prism. If I play characters that break down or cry, it's Gary Oldman crying; it's not the character crying.
The actors I respect are the real character actors, who are the real chameleon actors that completely change from role to role. I love Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman. They tend to be British, I guess. People who really disappear and transform, I really like that.
I try to bring elements of my own personality to every character I've played, but I think I'm pretty similar to the character I'm playing now. The biggest departure would have to have been Freaks and Geeks Sara, who was this sort of subordinate and shy girl.
I grew up watching 'Rambo' and 'Rocky' and all of those movies, so you have a surreal moment, even as an actor, when you're in front of these guys, whether it's DeNiro or Stallone. You have a moment like, 'Geez, that's Sylvester Stallone,' and then you have to snap out of it and get back in the pocket of the character.
In some ways, every character we write, especially the protagonist, is some version of ourselves, as a writer/director, even if they aren't the same gender.
As a general rule, when a new industry takes root, and the first products emerge in a wave, almost always the architecture of the product will be proprietary and interdependent in character.
You can't afford for there to be gaps in your pool of knowledge when it comes to a character; otherwise, what ends up onscreen is generalized and unspecific.
In 'Vagabond,' I'm acting like a gangster; it's very tough. I have to use my body for action scenes, and there is nothing gentlemanly about this character at all.
Respect and a gentlemanly character - those are marks of a Nebraskan.
There's a theory that says that life is based on a competition and the struggle and the fight for survival, and it's interesting because when you look at the fractal character of evolution, it's totally different. It's based on cooperation among the elements in the geometry and not competition.
I did that all the more, if I may say so, because I was aware of the fact that there is an inclination to go to extremes in German people, and in the German character generally.
Usually I'm frustrated when I look at my films and I don't believe that I've made a real transformation beyond my usual sets of gestures and expressions. I still have this nagging feeling that it's me, that I didn't create a unique character.
There's different ways of getting into character. There's what's called 'the outside,' in which is finding the physicality of the character first. To give an example, in 'Gettin' Square' - Johnny Spitieri - that's how I found that character. I knew those people that I'd seen up at Kings Cross. I knew how they sounded.
I wish I was more like my character. In character, I am the queen. I am strong. I am confident, sometimes cocky. I'm hard to beat. Out of character, I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a best friend and just the girl next door that likes Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
I have always played the cheerful girl next door, especially on the Internet, and this film is a break from that. My character is more moody and bratty in 'Karwaan.'
I wrote 'Fight Song' as this declaration to believe in myself, and that is similar to what you are taught to believe in Girl Scouts. Building confidence. Building character. And above all else, being there for each other as a community.
If Russell Crowe says that he's Noah, he's Noah. You never doubt it. If he says that he's the Gladiator, he's the Gladiator. He's every character that he says he is. I've never doubted anything that he's done.
I would say there is probably a little bit of me in each character. But Purrscilla is a lot like me because she is very into glam and glitz and jewelry and everything very girly. And some of the jewelry in the illustration is even my own jewelry. But I'm not a cat fan - that's the only thing! I'm a dog person.
There's barely a strand of the modern media that the Kardashian-Wests haven't been able to master, and for good reason: Kanye is an amazing performer and cultural provocateur, while Kim, through her strength of character, has created a place for herself in the glare of the world's spotlight, and it takes real guts to do that.
But my main thing that I would love to see as a fan of 'Glee,' like I said, is to really get into the character and who they are and what they do outside of school. I think that that's interesting. And then of course the themed stuff and the album episodes are all really cool too.
