The only thing I wanted to do when I was a young naive kid was to become a New York stage actor.
I think of myself as an actor.
I think it's very rare, as an actor, that you get to a script, or an idea of a script, and you go, "Oh, I just have to do that!" It fell into place very quickly.
You work with seasoned actors, and sometimes you realize that they phone it in.
As an actor, you don't want to play a one-dimensional character.
As an actor, I've learned to become a detective. You have to figure out who that person is. If the character is a thief, you have to figure out what makes them a thief. Whatever the prevailing idiosyncrasy is, I have to find it in the script.
As an actor, you don't become Meryl Streep by doing the same type of comedy. You get there by being challenged.
I don’t want to be an actor or nothing but if I have to, I’ll act if it’s the right thing.
I become an actor, a quick-change artist, as if I can trap the Prince of Truth in the act of switching a style.
When you deal with a film that takes place in Europe, and you're going to work in English, you'd better work with European actors.
There's no set designer like your own self; you furnish the mise-en-scène, the wardrobe, the physical proportions of the actor, and the setting. Then radio is doing something that television very rarely achieves.
I sort of have open invitations from a lot of people to do TV. But it's very hard for me to do roles in sitcoms and movies because I'm not a great actor, so if the material isn't good, I'm in torment while I do it.
I don't have to meet actors. I'm really blessed that I don't have to do all that horseshit.
As an actor, you have to have your history.
I always had this huge respect for American filmmakers and American actors. I always had this very strong love and respect for the American cinema. I always knew that I was going to leave Sweden.
I grew up watching American movies. My favorite movies have always been American, since as long as I can remember. I always had this huge respect for American filmmakers and American actors.
My biggest fantasy as an actor is to be in situations that make me uncomfortable and force me out of my comfort zone.
I was offered and accepted a part in 'A Few Best Men,' and then the Australian actor's union argued that there were too many British actors. And the director decided to lose me.
Some of the things I've been in are comedic, but I don't get considered for true comedies because I'm a 'dramatic' actor.
I didn't train in directing; I talk to actors the way I talk to anybody.
There are days when you're in a good groove and the actor really understands the part and comes as prepared every day as you are and is so inside it. And then there's the day where, for whatever reason, it's just a harder slog. And I feel like those are the days where all the preparation and everything becomes more necessary because you have to find a third route there.
I realize how much I rely on the actors to really know the lines because I tend to forget what they are exactly, even though I've written them. I don't have them memorized. But when it's going well, there is that point where the actor starts to know more about the character than I do.
What makes an actor, I think, is a combination of a deep curiosity about life and a case of the crazies.
I'm pretty captivated by reality TV and I know that as an actor I probably shouldn't be saying that, but it's what I like to watch.
It's a lot easier, I think, to be an actor in a movie than to spin a joke on a sitcom.
