These characters are not spontaneous creations. They are engineered down to the last nut and bolt.

What I've found is if you get the right characters in the right story and put them in the right setting - and let them go - they tend to do all the exploring of the issues for you. Because people are...

That's definitely a part of who Superman is and definitely who Clark on the farm is. It translates to how calm he is. I feel like I'm pretty calm most of the time and relaxed, which gives presence to...

No characters in 'Stay Close,' including the leads, are black and white. I want them to be grey. I think that makes for a much more interesting reading experience, something that will stay with you a...

When you're building a character, or at least when I'm building a character, you start saying, 'How am I going to make people like him?'

I am playing the character of Sanjana in 'Race 3' and it is very a dark character in the initial phase of the film but towards the end, it gets transformed into a positive character.

If somebody is in a story, they need to be there for a reason, and not just to set up somebody else's story.

Representation means having characters with layers, showing them as human beings, so we can relate or have mixed emotions for that character.

I always think about Faulkner, and I would argue that there can be a difference between the way that characters express themselves internally and externally.

But he did say that the character would be on the sidelines in movies One and Two, and move into the middle with number Three, but I didn't realize he would move in with quite such a bang.

'Next to Normal' has challenged me as an actor because of how complex Diana is. And that's got me hungry for another character like that in a non-singing role because it would be interesting to...

I really love playing a character that's a little younger than me, to be honest. Because even if it's just three years, I can bring perspective into it.

The ambition of 'Ten Thousand Saints,' Eleanor Henderson's debut novel about a group of unambitious lost souls, is beautiful. In nearly 400 pages, Henderson does not hold back once: she writes the...

I normally play characters who are dealing with an overall objective - a great 'want' in their life.

We're a nation of latchkey children. Manners start at home, and no one is at home teaching manners so that children have respect for others.

There is that stereotype of a nerd with the high pants and pocket protector and that kind of thing. That can sustain comedy for maybe a movie - hence the 'Revenge of the Nerds' franchise - but not for...

I think the thing that always blows my mind is that Loki hasn't had much screen time, really, in the grander scheme of things. I think it's roughly 79 minutes and I think that's so incredible that...

I guess you could say that no matter what the characters are enduring, I try to make them retain their humanity. Their self-absorbed, grouchy, selfish, aggravating humanity.

For me, it's all about smaller character-driven pieces, about finding a person that I connect with and that I'm interested in bringing to life.

Are you in danger of becoming a good man?

I think that, for whatever reason, we've gotten to a place where, particularly in Hollywood, things have to be very pat. Like 'I'm a good guy. I'm a bad guy.'

To become a villain, you had to have become disillusioned, and in order to become disillusioned you had to have been passionate about something you believed in that was shaken and ripped from your...

I think that fiction writers can write about anyone. If you are writing a character, and the only thing they are to you is their otherness, then you haven't written a character.

Hamlet is the result of Shakespeare's work on Brutus.

I love playing Blair Cramer, and I'm thrilled to see what more they have in store for her. After playing this role for so many years, I still feel like there is so much about her that is still untold.

No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.

It's always more interesting to take on someone that's going to have hidden sides or a fatal flaw, because there's going to be more to play with - more conflict, internally or in and around them - but...