Top 69 Quotes & Sayings by Chris Lilley

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Australian comedian Chris Lilley.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Chris Lilley

Christopher Daniel Lilley is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and musician. He is known for his creation and portrayal of several fictional characters in the mockumentary television series We Can Be Heroes: Finding The Australian of the Year (2005), Summer Heights High (2007), Angry Boys (2011), Ja'mie: Private School Girl (2013), Jonah from Tonga (2014), and the web series Lunatics (2019). He is a two-time winner of the Logie Award for Most Popular Actor.

I feel like I'm so normal. So normal it's boring.
Fans feel they know me, so they want me to be on-the-spot funny, and it's hard to fulfil their expectations.
I met Kim Kardashian in a nightclub once, and she was really nice. Kanye was with her, but he didn't speak. He just looked at me. — © Chris Lilley
I met Kim Kardashian in a nightclub once, and she was really nice. Kanye was with her, but he didn't speak. He just looked at me.
Australia has a thing where apparently it's fine for me to dress up as an Asian woman. No one has questioned that.
I never like to think of any character as being over. I'm always thinking of different ways of bringing them back.
I just do what I think is funny and what's exciting to me.
I find myself believing everything that journalists tell me.
I find teenage girls endlessly funny.
I'm not a big comedy show-watcher, but I love Ricky Gervais' stuff and Sacha Baron Cohen's things. But I'm not an expert on them. I've seen them once.
I'll probably be still playing a school girl when I'm 60.
I think surprises make TV entertaining.
I have a massive guilt thing about money.
I'm not interested in being one of those comedians who wants to look good and be this 'cool' funny person. I don't care how weird or ugly I look. — © Chris Lilley
I'm not interested in being one of those comedians who wants to look good and be this 'cool' funny person. I don't care how weird or ugly I look.
Films do seem prestigious and glamorous, but when you create something, you want people to see it. TV still reaches so many more people; it still really appeals to me.
I'm not really a management-type person. It doesn't suit my personality to be bossing people around.
I've done signings where elderly people will line up to get photos with me and ask me to sign things. They don't even pretend it's for their grandkids. They're like, 'No, it's for me.'
I didn't do very well academically; I was always in the bottom class.
People were making fun of redheads before I came along.
I'm totally not media shy and do interviews all the time and go to events and totally play along and actually enjoy talking to journalists most of the time.
I'm pretty lucky. I don't get too many haters.
When no one knows you, and you're just trying to break into stuff, it's so good because you can write whatever you want and just say it; it's just between you and the audience. There's no process or worrying about anyone else interfering with what you're doing.
Like, Australians definitely don't walk around dressed up in blackface going, 'Ha-ha.'
To be honest, after all the crap that happened with 'Summer Heights High,' I was like, 'I'm not going to write anything controversial or edgy ever again; I just can't handle the blame.'
I don't like to analyze what I do too much, but I certainly never meet a single person and say, 'You're the next character.' People think that's what I do. They also think that I sit down and observe and try to imitate random people. I've never done that at all.
I find actors a little bit too self-conscious.
If you over-think, it affects things too much; I work instinctively, like painting in a way. Think too much, and you ruin everything.
I would love to play a British character one day. My accent wavers between Scottish and Irish very easily, though.
It takes me ages to write stuff.
I think after doing a few shows now, people are ready to put me down.
I'm interested in youth culture - when your parents are running your life, but you think you're the big man - but I'm not trying to make a statement.
Mostly, what I watch are reality shows and documentaries.
Religious humor is not really my area, so I probably wouldn't do anything about that, or politics or something.
I like the boundaries, the kinds of conventions of a documentary and having to work within that.
When I was in school, I was always writing scripts and dressing up as characters. I'd constantly be that guy who'd get up on stage. I used to write imaginary TV shows, like soap operas, for fun.
I've never been a 16-year-old girl.
British comedy fans go crazy.
I like playing all sorts of ages and genders.
People are always nice; I never get anything mean said to me on the street. — © Chris Lilley
People are always nice; I never get anything mean said to me on the street.
When I wrote 'We Can Be Heroes,' I was just so excited about the concept of playing loads of characters, and a television series allows you to do that.
I really like Jeff Lewis and 'Flipping Out' and 'Interior Therapy.' I don't know why I'm obsessed with American real estate and renovation.
I've met big-name actors doing Hollywood films, and they've said that all they want is an in at HBO and their own show.
I'm definitely attracted to the idea of people that have these big aspirations that the audience know might never happen, but they're lost in them.
I'm not a big fan of 'Jersey Shore' and those kinds of shows where people are really playing up to the cameras.
People think that I'm some kind of genius who's got these statements to say, and... I'm not really.
In Australia, I'm built up as this comedy hero, which was never my intention.
It's pretty awful being told you're a racist.
I get bored with the constant probing for the cliched tears of the clown, the dark side of the comic.
Playing girls is cool, but its a lot more fun playing boys. — © Chris Lilley
Playing girls is cool, but its a lot more fun playing boys.
I think my parents had a hard time dealing with me.
You feel the pressure of going to university because you need a back-up plan, which is why I enrolled.
I don't just want to upset people and shock people by saying something really outrageous.
I went to a private boys' school, and we had girls in the last two years.
There are bits of me in all my characters.
I feel really qualified to write about Australia.
I was sure 'Summer Heights High' would be a cult ABC thing; I had no idea it would be such a big hit.
I'm so independent in writing stuff and controlling what I do. Sometimes I get calls from people asking to be in their movie, but I'm always writing or editing, and I can never get around to doing it. I'm so much more interested in my own stuff. I think I drive my agent crazy.
It's barely OK for me to be dressed up as a black guy. But part of me kind of enjoys provoking people.
You can't get any better than TV on HBO, ABC and BBC3.
I get asked to do stupid things like panel shows and talk shows and things.
I started doing comedy just as myself, because I thought, "This is what's expected, you're meant to tell stories and do observations." And then I started to realize that I wanted to mix it up a bit, so I started to doing songs, and I had a little keyboard onstage and would bring in little props. Then I thought about the idea of talking about a character and becoming the character onstage. So, it sort of morphed into being stand-up that was more character based, and I found that's the stuff I got the better reaction from and was more exciting for me.
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