Welcome to our curated collection of character actor quotes! Character actors are the unsung heroes of the entertainment industry, often providing depth, humor, and authenticity to the stories we love. While leading roles may steal the spotlight, it’s the character actors who breathe life into the colorful array of personalities that populate our favorite films, television shows, and plays. With their versatility and ability to disappear into roles, character actors leave an indelible mark on audiences, even if their names aren’t always in lights.
In this compilation, we celebrate the talent and wisdom of character actors through their memorable quotes. From insights into their craft to humorous anecdotes from behind the scenes, these quotes offer a glimpse into the minds of the performers who bring some of our most beloved characters to life. Whether you’re a fan of classic cinema, contemporary television, or theater aficionado, you’re sure to find inspiration and entertainment in the words of these versatile performers. So, dive in, explore, and discover the wit, wisdom, and charm of character actors!
I wish I were a character actor. Of course, if I played hockey without a mask, I could become one. Michael Vartan
I didn’t set out to be a villain in film. I’m a character actor, and if my first movie was a comedy, I could have played a geek just as well. William Zabka
I always thought of myself as a character actor. I never thought of myself as a leading man. Clint Eastwood
I was never an ingenue. I’ve always just been a character actor. When I was younger, it was a real problem, because I was never pretty enough. It was hard, not just for the lack of work, but because you have to face up to how people are looking at you. Kathy Bates
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
I always wanted to be a character actor. I love watching movies where you don’t recognize someone because they’re so lost in the part. Alison Elliott
The camera lens or the television camera is still just a proscenium arch. And as a great old character actor once said to me, wherever you’re acting, you reach up and take hold of the proscenium arch, and you pull it down around your shoulders. Robert Preston
As you get older and ease your way into being a character actor you have to be comfortable with where you are in life and career, and I’m very comfortable with what I’m doing – working on projects I’m proud of. George Clooney
I don’t have to be a leading man. I can be a character actor. That’s really what interests me anyway. Mark Ruffalo
I think of myself as a character actor, compared to a straight actor. I know a character actor in England is pretty much the same as in the States; you’re actually hired to put on terrible teeth and stuff like that. Burn Gorman
Eventually, I’d love to be known as a character actor. Jess Weixler
I’d rather be Vincent Price than a red-neck character actor. You can’t predict what will happen. Robert Englund
Because I am a character actor, I thought I would be the fourth or eighth banana on a sitcom, and that would be OK. Nia Vardalos
I’m a character actor, but I look like a leading man. Val Kilmer
Those offers come in now and again. They’re not knocking down my door. I’m only an old character actor, and I’m not needed. Carroll O’Connor
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. Vincent D’Onofrio
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
And I have been able to establish this sort of decent reputation as being a decent character actor. Vincent D’Onofrio
I would rather be called a character actor than a star. Louis Jourdan
I don’t feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor. Matthew Macfadyen
I was always a character actor, basically, that sometimes looks like a leading man. John Travolta
What’s great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It’s not about the gloss of your eyebrows. Martin Short
I found myself sort of becoming a character actor, though I don’t know if that would be my natural makeup. Mahershala Ali
One thing that’s great about being a character actor is that a movie doesn’t rest on your shoulders. If it bombs, it won’t hurt my career. Joe Pantoliano
If you are the kind of guy who draws in 100 million people to see his film, you’ve got every right to be paid accordingly, but I qualify as a character actor. I don’t put a bum on a seat. Peter Mullan
I’ve said this before, but I’ve always felt more comfortable playing the guy who thinks he’s the hot shot or thinks he’s the greatest and is so far from it, you know? The misguided character. That’s always more interesting to me – especially with a comedy. I’ve always felt inside more like a character actor. James Marsden
I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies. Patricia Clarkson
I’m a character actor and I get lost in these characters, so I think it’s only recently that people have begun to connect dots and go, ‘Oh, that’s the same person that did this, this, this, this and this!’ which I take as a compliment. One time somebody called me an illusionist, and that was the nicest thing anyone has ever said. Carrie Preston
My definition of a character actor is – they never get the girl. James Cromwell
I’m a character actor. Aaron Paul
I just wanted to be a working character actor. Michael Horse
I don’t really think there’s much difference between a character actor and a leading man besides aesthetics. Jeremy Renner
I think I enjoy working obviously as a lead, but also you know I feel I’m also a character actor as well, so I enjoy approaching various projects in all sort of capacities. Any film I have been able to do I feel very fortunate to have been a part of. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Being a character actor, I can go on until I’m 70 or 80; I’m not bound to the way I look. Sophie Okonedo
There is less pressure as a character actor. It generally means that you will be acting for all of your life, which is my intention. It is not my intention to just be a rich and famous person, that would be pretty boring. Tim Roth
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
Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me. Michael Gambon
I like the wild characters. I like the idea of being a character actor without being a character actor. Britt Robertson
I was only a leading man for a minute; now I’m a character actor. Robin Williams
If you’re a ‘character actor,’ you get hired to play baddies a lot. Ben Mendelsohn
The reality is that there are so few roles out there for women and for women of color, and I’m a character actor, this I know. And I’m getting to see more of the roles that are out there, but there aren’t many. And zilch have been studio movies. Zilch. Octavia Spencer
I’m a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don’t look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once. Curtis Armstrong
I enjoy being a character actor; I enjoy being different in everything. I want a private life; I want to be able to go to 7-11 and not get into a fight with a guy because he saw me in a movie, or not have people hitting on me simply because they saw me in a movie. Alexis Arquette
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 think every leading man wants to be a character actor, and every character actor wants to be a leading man. Bruce Boxleitner
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
I admire many actors, though I don’t think there’s anyone whose career I would want to mirror sort of by the beats. What I’m really looking to do is constantly defy expectations. I’m very curious to see if you can actually have a character actor and a movie star’s career combined. David Oyelowo
I’m a character actor; that’s my skill set. Kristin Lehman
I have no issue with being a character actor. If you’ve been around enough that people are able to segregate you into that category, it means you’re working. So that’s good! John C. McGinley
I’m definitely a character actor. I’ve tried to limit anything with a uniform because I’ve done it so much. There’s a lot more I can offer. It’s just getting people to see something else. Brent Sexton
I always considered myself as a character actor. I always try to be versatile to show different sides of human experience. Robert Duvall
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 consider myself absolutely a character actor, and that’s what I want as a career. I don’t need to be the lead star or any of that, as long as I’m doing stuff that I’m proud of, really. Aaron Paul
I was born a character actor. Charles Durning
I really love being a character actor. Missi Pyle
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
As an actor, particularly because I’m – I would call myself a character actor. I change my look, my physical appearance and my body, my hair color, my whatever all the time for a role. Lynn Redgrave
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
To be a character actor is to be open, to be a chameleon. Giancarlo Esposito
I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don’t take on characteristics which are very alien to me. Jeremy Irons
I have always weirdly seen myself as more of a character actor. I have never been suave. I could never see myself playing James Bond. I suppose I could fake it, but I am certainly not James Bond in real life. James Marsden
I’m just a character actor. Dennis Farina
I always wanted to be a character actor rather than the poster boy that they tried to make me 100 years ago. An actor has a degree of responsibility to change for the audience, to give them something new each time, to surprise and not bore them. Johnny Depp
The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get these girls who say ‘I’m a character actor’ then you see them in a role and nothing has really changed but the outfit. Juliette Lewis
The Baha’i celebrity, or the Belebrity, is a character actor with a big head playing an annoying creep on a TV show. Rainn Wilson
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
I’d love to be remembered as a character actor who brought illumination to roles in wonderful plays and who delivered performances that made people think and rethink those roles. David Suchet
I always see myself as a character actor, but Remington Steele was me. I gave up on trying to be any character. I just put myself as me in this world of Remington Steele and the grand pretender. Pierce Brosnan
My approach to the work is the same, whether I had the lead or a supporting role. I consider myself a character actor in the true sense of the word. Unless I’m doing my autobiography, I’m playing a character. Ving Rhames
I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood. Paul Newman
I do think I’m a character actor. Colin Firth
I consider myself a character actor. Brittany Murphy
I see myself as a character actor, and I’ve always been drawn to playing characters that are different from myself because acting is escapism for me. I’ve never been that comfortable playing people that are like me. Alessandro Nivola
Well, I’ve always been a character actor, you know, and you always get your share of character actors who are bad guys. Colm Meaney
I think every character actor at some stage likes to carry a film. It can be extremely liberating to just come in for a scene or two and do your thing. But I find it frustrating if I’m just doing little bits here and there for too long. Brendan Gleeson
I’ve made the transition from star to character actor and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Michael Caine
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 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 found my niche as a character actor, and I’ve never felt like a movie star or teen idol and never wanted to. Vincent D’Onofrio
I think being a character actor is exciting in that it allows you to embody completely different things, whether it’s through wild accents or a crazy bad guy or a drunken good guy. Jackie Earle Haley
I’m a character actor, so I don’t take the hit if the movie’s bad, the lead does. So, I don’t want to be the lead. He takes the hit, I don’t. Brion James
I’m a character actor – always have been, always will be – and historically, character actors don’t come into their own until later in their professional and chronological lives. Annie Potts
It’s the weirdest thing. When you go into acting, you expect to be a huge star and to be recognized… It did happen, but not in the way you expect it to… In L.A., I’m just another character actor. Dan Castellaneta
I’ll be working the rest of my life because I’m a character actor and don’t have to worry about box office. Vincent D’Onofrio
I guess you can say that every actor is a ‘character actor’ on some level. But I think some actors have a wider range. I think that’s how you get that mantle. John Hawkes
The chance to play a romantic character who kisses somebody onscreen was one of the elements that made me want to do ‘The Stand.’ The more you can do, the better, and I’ve been known as a character actor. Gary Sinise
I played crying people in corsets for a long time, but I went into acting to be a character actor. Anna Maxwell Martin
Any good actor is a character actor. James Remar
I’m a character actor. Taraji P. Henson
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 was working in Chicago, in theater and in commercials and anything that anybody would let me do. When I moved to L.A., I had made a choice to be a character actor, meaning that I wanted to become somebody else. That’s what attracted me to becoming an actor in the first place. Janina Gavankar
I love being the character actor. I get to stretch my muscles a little more. Reggie Lee
If I’m characterized as a character actor, that’s fine with me. Whatever they want to call me is fine. Dennis Farina
The hero of the ‘Peanuts’ is Charlie Brown. I play the dog that sleeps on the top of his dog box who’s a philosopher. I’m drawn to that. So I’m drawn to Barbossa as I’m drawn to Einstein, because they are outsiders, and I suppose, as a character actor, that’s the turf that you’re locked into, in a way. Geoffrey Rush
I’m so excited about ‘Shattered;’ it’s something I’ve really enjoyed working in, and it’s very different from anything I’ve done before. I’ve always been a character actor and done a lot of support work. I’ve never really been the lead actor, so I’ll try and use what I’ve learned along the way from the other projects. Callum Keith Rennie
I like to think of myself as a character actor, though there’s some redundancy in that. Jeff Bridges
My goal was just to work regularly. I didn’t ever expect to be rich or famous. I wanted to be a working character actor. Harrison Ford
I’m a character actor so I’ve jumped around to all kinds of things. Joe Mantegna
I’ve always considered myself a character actor. Jack Huston
As first and foremost a character actor, I’ve always resisted the temptation to cure any of the people I’ve played or make them lovable in any way; you’ve just got to celebrate them for what they are. Martin Clunes
