In my movies, I portray this 'Everyman' persona, someone everybody can empathize with. People can identify with a guy like me.
— Judge Reinhold
I didn't get a lot of industry action after 'Fast Times.'
The day before 'Beverly Hills Cop' opened, I was at a branch of my bank, and the teller asked me for two pieces of identification. Four days after it opened, I was being waved to on the freeway.
When I was a kid growing up, I liked the sympathetic characters played by Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon, and James Stewart. They were my heroes. No matter what happened to them, they survived with their dignity intact.
I still enjoy a lot of support from the black community.
'Harvey' continues to be both a charming and hilarious play.
The only people in my whole life that have ever called me Edward are the police because it's on my license.
The message I always received was God is good. You're bad. Try harder. I pretty much kept my hand up at anything that represented God.
I'm not really crazy about broad comedy. I like very possible, real situations that you might have found yourself in.
I remember once they sent me over to read for a show called 'Mork and Mindy.' I heard gales of laughter, then Robin Williams walked out. I had to follow Robin Williams.
I don't think anybody at the major studios is rushing to offer me a romantic lead.
Before 'Animal House' came out to open up a huge market, there just weren't parts for young guys. That genre of film was my ticket in... One of my first jobs was with Bill Murray in 'Stripes.'
I like to watch and perform the kind of comedy that comes out of the situation - where the character is really serious and in a tough situation and doesn't realize that the situation is comic.
I think I started out because I was desperate for approval and acceptance and praise. Some actors never break away from that. They're after that validation their whole life.
I was a lousy waiter, dealing with people and having people in your face like that.
When you read a play, the words speak to you. When you read a script, there's no way you can tell if that's the way that movie will turn out.
I'm really glad I had the chance to live in Jensen Beach and Stuart before everything exploded. I'm always going to be fond of that area. For me, it was a sleepy little fishing town, and it kind of represents what Florida was before the development explosion.
My first car was a '63 Chevy station wagon that I called Ramona, because that's the sound it made. 'Farm Use' was painted on the back. It was right off the set of 'Hee Haw.'
I like movies that project a dilemma of modern men and women who are overwhelmed by the system.
I was welcomed into some nightclubs in Chicago that no white man's ever been in.
A lot of things haven't changed - clothes and stuff have - but kids keep working after-school jobs and keep getting into terrible trouble in relationships. That's not going to stop.
I frowned just like Winston Churchill on his worst day, and I reminded my father of a judge who had presided over a case... I've been Judge ever since I was two weeks old.
You have to tell a good story first. If it's a good story, people will be interested. It doesn't matter about the content.
I like very straight comedy.
I was pulling in $80 a week after taxes working in a frozen yogurt store.
I walked on eggshells a lot. I have a bad self-esteem problem, and my father probably facilitated it. He once looked at me very seriously when I was about 15 and had whipped cream smeared all over myself. He said, 'You'd do anything for a laugh, wouldn't you?'
My first time in front of a camera, I said, 'Wonder Woman, I'm so glad you're here.' That's how I made a living.
I'm proud to have been in some of the films that continue to be a special part of people's lives.
I don't know one actor that became an actor for healthy reasons.
My first sex scene - and it was with myself.
Eddie Murphy is a great entertainer.
The first show I was in was 'Dracula' in 1975.
I haven't always played nice guys. In 'Gremlins,' I was a conceited, pompous braggart, and I was a redneck chauvinist in the TV movie 'A Matter of Sex.' But I really prefer sympathetic roles.
People are flooded with information every day, and normal guys everywhere try valiantly to stay up with all the technology. But they can't quite do it. I know how those guys feel.
If I get to tell good stories with good people, that's good enough for me.
My father was an attorney.
It's very easy to make a movie that confirms the worst in us.
I want to do things of significance, things that will inspire people to know how good life can be.
I'm not the comic innovator that Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy are. I can't just come out with an incredible line.
I don't put my nose up at anything if the material is good.
Personally, I feel that if you shoot off 200,000 rounds, and your lead character pulls out a pistol and never gets hit, there's a sense of jeopardy that's lost. It becomes a little less exciting when things don't make sense.
People are real quick to jump at the easiest way to define you.
The '80s was a great decade for comedy.
I was spoiled and I was arrogant. I was very demanding, had an overblown image of who I was and got a reputation for being difficult. And rightfully so.
