I like films better than the theater because you have to spend so much energy projecting your voice from the stage in the sheer effort to be heard.
— Denholm Elliott
The conventionality of the English is something I find unattractive - the whole lack of joy in the physical.
I'm often given parts that aren't as big as they are colorful, but people remember them. When it's a minor or supporting role, you learn to make the most of what you're given. I can make two lines seem like 'Hamlet'.
'Trading Places' did more for my career than anything I'd ever done. It was a zonking great hit, and it was also just a joy to do.
I always think instinct is more interesting than anything you can think up. I mistrust and am rather bored with actors who are of the Stanislavski school who think about detail.
I like actors - such as Margaret Rutherford and Peter Lorre - who aren't afraid to over-act like real people. When I take a job, I can always come up with ten different ways of doing the part. But I'll always choose the flashiest one. You've got to dress the window a bit.
The English may love gardening and fishing, but they have never struck me as being close to nature. Their way of expression is 'the hollyhocks are awfully good' sort of thing, all done in very good taste. The savagery of nature is something they don't dwell upon.
I think you can be terribly overexposed. I've been always very careful in my career to do theatre; it takes you out of the television eye, and people are glad to see you back again.
