Characters can stay with you.
— Cameron Britton
I think the Mary J. Blige persona wouldn't lend itself to the big kid persona, but that's exactly who she is. She has such a serious life and childhood and then such a dramatic one, a successful R&B singer. But she's just stayed this kid for life and stuff.
There's some projects you're - where you're worrying that the continuity isn't right because people aren't watching after your hair or wardrobe or props, or you're not sure you're getting shot at the right angle.
You don't want to make performances; you want to make people. When a project knows, 'Okay, my bad guys need to be a little sympathetic, and my good guys need to have a bit of a mean streak,' you're off to a good start.
If you go back to Season 1 of 'The Office,' Steve Carell's character is a lot different.
I always look for projects that are risky and ones that want to do something unique. If audiences don't like it, you feel good knowing that you were brave enough to do something original. If they do like it, you feel like everyone is rewarded, because we all got to see something new.
When you can surprise yourself, you're truly acting.
I said no to a lot of superhero stuff. I never expected to say yes to that kind of stuff.
There's been some people I've overheard talking about 'Mindhunter.' I'll lean in and say, 'Hey, I haven't seen it yet. Is it any good?' And they'll say, 'Yeah, you should go check it out.'
We opened a theater in 2006 called Loft Ensemble in Sherman Oaks. And we write our own plays and do goofy characters and pack a whopping 20 people per night to watch our work.
I don't know if I could play 'intimidating' in a way that's physically a tough type, and it feels like since 'Mindhunter' came out, auditions have been much more geared toward more intelligent characters. And that's the kind of stuff I like to play.
If it's a 50-seat theater, I am neurotic about whether I'm doing an honest performance. Sometimes I walk away happy enough with it. You know, it can always be better, but sometimes I'll walk away distraught, feeling like I missed the pulse of the character that evening.
For eight years, I taught special-needs preschool for 18 months to 3-year-olds. It's what I was gonna do with my career for a while, and then I got a little burnt out.
We all want to just want to live a simple life, but nobody really knows how to do that.
I've never understood why someone does a cover of a song just exactly the same. If you do something, do it a little different so people have a new experience.
I think 'Mindhunter' has allowed me to get a chance to do larger projects.
You don't see many bad guys fight amongst themselves. Bad guys always know exactly who they are and what they want. Good guys are the ones who are a little confused about their identities.
F. Murray Abraham is an incredible actor and has been for a long time. I've been watching him as I grew up.
I wish all guns had blanks, and that's all we shot out of guns, because then I'd recommend that everyone has as many guns as they can. Just wandering around with that big loud sound exploding, and the force of it, is a blast.
In a way, I felt like I arrived before I was making money at it, because I'd established that I just wanted to act.
I love to be in projects that take risks.
I wouldn't say I'm a shy person, but I like my privacy.
I spent all of my twenties doing theater in a little 50-seat theater with my friends.
I just love characters that are complex, that you can dig into and keep itching the scratch and never quite be satisfied because they have enough going on with them that it's like a giant puzzle.
Nobody really thinks they're evil.
It's not terrifying to watch 'Mindhunter,' necessarily, but it's just unsettling. You can find Aileen Wuornos just talking to a camera. It's hard to watch. Her eyeballs, they are just terrifying.
No matter what, you can be a big kid in life.
There's a lot of sets where morale is low; people are just a little too mellow, and that's infectious. So when someone calls 'Action,' you have to spike your energy up and fight against the current of the room.
Mary doesn't want to be treated as Mary J. Blige: she just wants to be Mary.
Whenever you have a role where you don't get to know anything about the character, you have to invent it yourself. You have to feel like it came from somewhere.
Some folks are a little scared when they meet me.
When you have a job you know you'd do for free, it takes a lot of the pressure away to be successful at it. So if it's doing theater in New York or teaching acting, I'm down for all of it.
When I was 11, I said I wanted to be an actor.
I just love Claire Foy.
If you feel too comfortable while you're performing, you're probably not doing it right.
Whenever you're playing somebody who is, by all accounts, rotten, don't focus on the rotten stuff. That stuff will take care of itself. It's already in the script; the audience is already experiencing it without you having to add an extra feel of evil. Just play them like regular people.
Never been a successful audition, not even so much as a callback, when it comes to putting me in a role of being rough.
I've seen a lot of teachers come and go, and you do three or four years, and it's exhausting.
If you had special powers, it wouldn't be all fun and games. There would be regrets for things you've done.
