When I did 'The Cell' - no matter what you think of that movie, because I have my opinions of it too - it was, you know, I still have nightmares from the research that I did. Not from playing the part, just from the research.
— Vincent D'Onofrio
I did a film called 'Fire with Fire.'
I guess I say this for younger actors out there: you have to be brave, and you have to be ready to fail, and that's the only way you can be unique. So when a director is confident enough in what they're doing, and they allow their actors to be brave and bring in stuff, the more likely it's going to work out okay.
I have changed so much as an actor over the years.
When you're acting, it should be the most important thing that's going on. But when you're not, leave it alone.
The thing about Marvel is that they're not - they're into real acting. They're looking for artists that are willing to take chances and are willing to create characters. Even if that character has been around for years and years in comic books, they still are depending on us to create something and take it somewhere else.
The most fun you can possibly have as an actor is to walk that line between what's real and what's interesting.
Evil changes everybody!
It doesn't need to be a number one show, it just needs to be good.
They were all interested in what I was going to do, because I'd never worked in televsion before.
The minute you start feeling like you've got it down, you know what you're doing, you're dead in the water.
When you are a character actor they trust you will go in and give them a full character and leave.
But the one thing that I did do was establish myself as a good actor.
The Whole Wide World is the first movie I've ever produced.
My partner Dan Ireland wants me to direct, and I read a lot of scripts - some good enough that I could see myself. But then it's like, so what? Who cares? Let someone else direct it.
No, I knew when I was doing theater in New York that this was what I was supposed to be doing.
If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.
I'm not gonna play a part that doesn't instill some kind of fear in me. If I read a part, and suddenly, I'm thinking halfway through, 'I'm not sure I could get away with this,' I think of everything I can think of to keep me from doing it, that's the one I should do.
I learned a lot from Dick Wolf. I'll always remember playing that character because it was such a good character. It was great to be able to be a character like that for television. I think the thing that I'll bring from the whole experience, the whole 10 years, is I had never been interested in the television business before.
Until I got 'Full Metal Jacket,' I was doing Off-Off-Broadway plays with three people in the audience.
I never was happy with the job I did in 'Ed Wood.'
Frank Miller and David Mack are incredible artists.
When you're a child, you're able to assimilate so easily into any situation. You even start talking like the people you're around. I wasn't conscious that I was so good at that until I started to truly feel like an actor.
Acting is not a mystery. There's nothing that I know that other actors don't know. We all act, we're all actors, we all know the same thing. The only thing that separates us is experience.
The search for the truth is not for the faint hearted.
I took a route of acting, rather than starmaking, so it cost me a lot financially.
At our best, it's a good experience but we do 22 episodes a year, so there are some clunkers.
It doesn't need to be a No 1 show, it just needs to be good.
Unless you look like Brad Pitt, it's really hard to have full control of your character.
So I moved to Europe and only came back when directors like Robert Altman would call me after they'd seen my work in Full Metal Jacket.
People who are extremely inside their head, like he was, are caught in a neurosis that goes round and round. Then something will hook them and take them to their end and they can't control it.
I think that being a producer is business and being an actor is art.
I've never tried to be something I'm not.
Look, all you can do when you find your niche is go with it.
When I played Robert Howard in 'The Whole Wide World', I was struggling with it. There's this dual thing where you feel real good about being able to play this juicy part, and then there's constant shame: 'Who am I to pretend to know who this guy was? Who am I to represent this guy for people who never knew him?'
Doing 'Law & Order' for so long, my fan base was, like, men and women my age, and then doing 'Daredevil', my whole audience has changed. It's cool.
When you look at people, you should look at more than what you see on the surface; you should try to find a soul.
I am a method actor, but I'm also a film actor as well as a method actor. Characters that don't have humility, whether they are heroes or villains, are hard to relate to. All characters in every aspect of what we do should have humility. If they don't, then they're a cartoon character.
I read Spider-Man, and that's how I knew about Wilson Fisk.
All of us are trying to achieve 100 percent in our work. That's all we struggle to do. We never do, but we never stop trying until the day we die. It's that struggle to achieve 100 percent, that's where our performance lies, that's what the audience gets. They get the struggle.
Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that.
I'm a character actor, and I made a choice when I was young, after 'Mystic Pizza', not to go for the mainstream stuff, and to do a more eclectic kind of route.
Our show is different, because it's not about law and order, it's about psychology, the intent of somebody.
I want every episode to feel like we still haven't done this right yet.
It's like why people read scary books or go see scary movies. Because it creates a distance. They're scared, but they're not going to get hurt.
So a failed movie is not going to ruin my career.
When I was younger I used to pick things just to face the fear.
To me the definition of true masculinity - and femininity, too - is being able to lay in your own skin comfortably.
And then, as the years went on, I just kept moving along, busting into doors and getting roles, until I started to actually believe that what these other people were saying was true.
I found my niche as a character actor, and I've never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to.
