A Quote by Christopher Timothy

It was a tricky part to play, because Herriot is both a fictional character and a real person. — © Christopher Timothy
It was a tricky part to play, because Herriot is both a fictional character and a real person.
It's more difficult playing a real-life person than a fictional character - you can go easy on yourself with a fictional character.
I don't think there is a fictional character who resembles me because fictional characters are not real!
When you play a real person, you feel a sense of responsibility that obviously you don't feel when you're playing a fictional character.
When you're training as an actor, a lot of the big work you're learning is to treat fictional characters like real people. You don't have the problem of discovering a backstory with real people, but there's always a mystery which is common to both fictional and factual characters. They are never quite the person you think they are.
To create a character who really interests you, try combining aspects of your favourite fictional character with a real person.
There is a sense of responsibility when you play a real-life character because there are people who will see your work, make comparisons, and judge you. They have all the rights to do that because they know the real person. They might have seen that person also.
My approach is always the same. I try to be as honest as possible. Find the real honesty and humanity in the character because even a fictional character is supposed to feel real. And my job is to find that reality and bring it to the screen.
No one ever has a chance to get to know the real me because I do play a bad guy, and sometimes it's hard to soak in the comments or the negativity because that's the response you want to elicit. I am a normal person, but that's part of the job. I'm playing a character, and that's my role.
The only thing that I know how to do as an actor, as a trained actor, is you can't villainize the character you're playing. Whether it's a fictional character or a real character. Because then you operate from that sort of negative point of view, and you can't humanize him.
If you're playing a fictional character, you can create a character, you can sort of take certain liberties. And when you're playing a real person who's actually standing there watching you, you know, it's - you do feel a weight. You know, you feel an obligation to not only be - to give the best performance that you can, but to make sure that you represent this person.
I had to detach myself from myself, if that makes any sense, to conjure an authentic first-person voice. In that sense, it was similar to writing a first-person novel. But I was writing about real people, not fictional ones - myself, my family, my friends and boyfriends and ex-husband, and that was extremely tricky.
As with real families, my fictional family on 'Life Goes On' had its ups and downs, and as part of the fictional downers, the actors were often called to cry on cue. This absolutely terrified me, because I was a pretty happy kid who didn't have much to cry about.
I quote fictional characters, because I'm a fictional character myself!
I'm so grateful that I can play and that I can execute what I hear in my head, because that's the tricky part.
We, people, are so very, very complicated that no matter how well drawn a fictional character is, they can't get anywhere near as complex as a real person.
Not every character that you play is going to be somebody that you like or love, but every character that you play has a story that is worth telling. If you're not the person to tell it, that's one thing. But if you don't want to tell it because you are afraid of the unpopularity of the character, I view that as a missed opportunity.
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