Leading Actor Quotes & Sayings

I started off as an actor thinking that I would be this Romeo, this dashing leading man. It turns out that I'm a character actor. — Alessandro Nivola

I've always thought of myself as a character actor, even though I've played some leading-man roles. — Malcolm Gets

There aren't as many roles, and I think there's a lack of openness in casting an Asian character in a leading role or unless they're a stereotype. It's been hard. I've been able to play some non-stereotypical roles, which is great, but I have a lot of Asian actor friends who are struggling. — Kimiko Glenn

I always knew I'd be more of a character actor than a leading man, and I always wanted to take that and run with it. — B. D. Wong

I find it very invigorating having Ken Lonergan, who's an established, Pulitzer-nominated playwright doing Howards End, or Chris Hampton who's won an Oscar writing a TV series, or having an actor like Mark Rylance, who is probably England's leading theater actor, in the lead in Wolf Hall. — Colin Callender

I've learned 90 percent of what I know from watching and listening to actors. A good leading actor is the rock of the show. Their energy and their tone really sets the groundwork for how everything is going to work. I've been lucky to deal with stars who are very giving and generous. — Finn Wittrock

I have friends who are leading men, and they're only ever allowed to play leading men of a certain type. But as a character actor, there's a wider variety of projects available. On the big Hollywood films, all they care about is having their lead in place, so it's actually easier for someone like me to slip in. And I'm happy to do so. — Eddie Marsan

Every end of the day is a great movie and the Sun above is surely the leading actor in this film! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

I don't even think of myself as particularly good looking, and not at all a typical kind of Hollywood leading man sort of actor. — Ryan Gosling

I think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man. — Bruce Boxleitner

If you know the filmmaker is good and the leading actor is a movie star like Diane Lane, you know you're part of something great. — Kevin Connolly

I never really thought of myself as being an action hero or a leading man or any of that. I'm a character actor. — Aaron Paul

I was a stage actor for 20 years or so; I was leading men in classical things. 'Shakespeare,' you know. And now, I never play leading men. I'm that kamikaze comic that comes from the left, turns the table over, and leaves, or the hyper-intelligent yuppie scumbag if it's a drama. — John Michael Higgins

I haven't aged into a character actor. I'm an old leading man. — Stewart Granger

Fortunately and unfortunately, people don't see me as a character actor. They see me as a leading man or nothing, which makes it really hard to get work. — Josh Holloway

I think of myself more as a character actor than that ingenue leading lady, who started out something like Michelle Pfeiffer, or Jessica Lange. I'm a bit quirkier than that. — Joan Allen

I was born a character actor. I was never really a leading man type. — Burgess Meredith

I'm a character actor, but I look like a leading man. — Val Kilmer

I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hallowness,
the futility of the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd
seemingly the leading actor of the piece ;
but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.
I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.
He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of sahib.
For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives", and so in every crises he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. — George Orwell

Some of the supporting roles that I've done as an actor, I took them because I knew that I would get to watch some of the leading guys in the movies, and also I'd get to work with them. — Thomas Jane

The whole purpose of our search for a 'unit of selection' is to discover a suitable actor to play the leading role in our metaphors of purpose. — Richard Dawkins

I didn't have this feeling that I should be a leading actor in the cinema. And I wouldn't want the responsibility of the opening weekend. — Brian Cox

I have my character actor side as a kid and my more leading man side. It's all been beneficial. — Kevin Schmidt

I don't have to be a leading man. I can be a character actor. That's really what interests me anyway. — Mark Ruffalo

Really, I prefer not to read my early books. Not that I don't like them, but I don't recognize myself anymore, like an old actor watching himself as a young leading man. — Patrick Modiano

I was always a character actor, basically, that sometimes looks like a leading man. — John Travolta

The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually a press agent, actor, director, producer, leading man; and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude, but true. — Hedy Lamarr

I don't really think there's much difference between a character actor and a leading man besides aesthetics. — Jeremy Renner

It's weird but I've never really been the type to have fixations on the leading man actor. I've always been drawn more to the rock star. I love a guy on the microphone commanding an audience. — Amanda Crew

Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life. — Alec Guinness

I've got a range as an actor! There was a time I played dramatic leading men. — Charles Dance

You need supporting actors to help to tell the story. For me, I'm lucky to be a part of the films. Being an actor, I'll take any role, whether it's supporting or leading. — Robert Maillet

It's properly scary playing a leading man. Growing up, I always wanted to be a character actor. — Rafe Spall

Just as the good actor perform well whatever role the poet assigns, so too must the good man perform whatever Fortune assigns. For she, says Bion, just like a poet, sometimes assigns the leading role, sometimes that of the supporting role; sometimes that of a king, sometimes that of a beggar. Do not, therefore, being a supporting actor, desire the role of the lead. — Bion Of Borysthenes

I was never really a character actor - I was a leading man who was always cast as a character. I wanted to be Jack Nicholson or Jean Gabin. — Robert Shaw

People call me a movie star. If you're in the business, a movie star is someone who can make a film bankable. My name and $6 million will make a $6 million movie. I'm a working actor. Because I started late, I had a very short run as a leading man, and my films didn't make money in America. — Peter Coyote

I'm a character actor. Nobody's ever seemed to think of me as a leading man. I'm 6'6'. I've got a big nose. I'm gangly. I've got crooked teeth. That's certainly not Brad Pitt. I'm still around and alive, so if they need older guys, I guess they're thinking of me. — James Cromwell

I am the actor that I am. I do what I do. I've been a 'leading man' playing romantic leads for a long time now. — Pierce Brosnan

I think, as an actor, and particularly if you are playing the lead in something, you have to view yourself as the head of department for the cast. All of the other departments are accountable and have somebody at the helm who is leading them all the time, and I don't think that the actors should be any different. — Daniel Radcliffe

I was never a leading man. I've always been in the outer concentric circles in the company, being a character actor, which is a good place to be. It gives you that diversity. — Geoffrey Rush

I started off doing plays as a theater actor. But I never thought of it in terms of it leading anywhere. I was just trying to be the best actor that I could be in the context of what I was doing. — Chiwetel Ejiofor

As an actor, I felt I couldn't compete. I wasn't as cute as the leading man; I wasn't as brilliant as Robin Williams. — Phil Hartman

I was only a leading man for a minute; now I'm a character actor. — Robin Williams

For an actor to be working at all is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren't. So it's just silly for a working actor to say, 'Oh, I don't care if anybody knows I'm gay' especially if you're a leading man. Personally, I wouldn't advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out, — Richard Chamberlain

Well, I think probably when I first got in the business, I wasn't thinking of being strictly a character actor. But I knew I wanted to be a working actor, and as the years have gone on, I just naturally evolved into that. Because, y'know, I'm not a leading guy. Never was. — Stephen Root

If you're a leading actor you don't work with another actor. You work with a lady. — Michael Caine

I've been nominated twice before as actor in a leading part. Now I'm nominated as actor in a supporting part. If I don't win, I'll just wait until I'm nominated for being in the theater during the show. Do they have one like that? — Alan Alda

Studios might cast an actor because he is too tall next to the leading lady, who is too short, or they might not cast your guy because he's blond, and they wanted a brunette. There's all kinds of reasons why they want one person over another. I don't worry about it, but it can hurt sometimes if you really wanted something, if you really went after something. — Bruce Campbell

I've never thought of myself as a classic leading man. I'm a character actor who happens to play leading roles. Come on, look at me. I'm really Desperate Dan. — James Nesbitt

I don't get offered leading parts. I suppose I've become a kind of character actor or sideman. I think it had to do with probably in the '90s, I refused so many leading roles that they gave up on me, or I just became unpopular, or I became old. All those reasons. — Sam Shepard

I'm an actor. I'll take a lead if it's offered. The really good actors can fill a character, no matter what the role is. A good leading man is a character actor; a good character actor can be a leading man. — Edward Herrmann

I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies. — Patricia Clarkson

I always thought the leading actor should be the best supporting actor, because you're the only person that can help every other actor on the set. — Kevin Costner

Sidney Poitier, who is class personified, said: 'Lou, you're a leading man because you're a good actor.' Brought tears to my eyes. — Lou Diamond Phillips

[And on going from character to leading actor] I don't approach anything differently; I just approach it as a character. I'm always astounded at the fact that I've ever played a leading character in anything [Laughs]. And my wife concurs with that, frankly. She always thought I would be, at best, the wacky neighbor on a sitcom, so this is all just a surprise and a joy. — Steve Carell

When I came into the acting profession, it was quite hierarchical. You didn't sit at the same table as the leading actor. Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud ... these were very, very intimidating and powerful people. — Helen Mirren

I was always a character actress and never a sex symbol. Even when I was the leading lady, I was a character actor. — Shirley Maclaine

The ability to stretch my range into all genres and characters is something I take great pleasure in doing. I thoroughly enjoy it. I consider myself a character actor, though some think of me as a leading man. As an actor, I love shifting gears from character to character, and the more range I can expand, the better. — Brian Tee

It's so rare, especially as a younger actor, to find a role where it's not just one-dimensional and it's not just a stock leading man. — Matt Bomer

I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man. — Clint Eastwood

How you look is part of what acting is, but the way I look at it, every actor is a character actor. Someone once told me at a casting, 'You're a character actor in a leading man's body,' and I can live with that. — Santiago Cabrera

It's the persona that makes you a leading actor. A leading actor has something extra that's fun to watch. But it isn't usually about acting. — Val Kilmer

I want to be a man's man-not a kid actor or a glitzy pop star but a no-bullshit leading man. — Scott Eastwood

I would have preferred someone else to have been in charge of rescuing this story, but once again life has taught me that my role is to be a witness, not the leading actor. — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I think the type of actor I am, I tend to play strong leading female characters. The shows I've been on happen to be science fiction genre. — Alaina Huffman

In the years since I worked with John Hughes, there were many years where I literally had hundred of doors slammed in my face because I wasn't that kid anymore, and I wasn't a character actor, and I wasn't a leading man, and I wasn't whatever Hollywood was looking for. — Anthony Michael Hall