A Quote by Timothy Spall

There's posh character actors. For God's sake, Olivier was one of the greatest character actors in the world. Hamlet, Shylock, Othello - Othello! Whether you like it or not.

Timothy Spall

Quote Topics

Actors Character Character Actor Character Actors God Greatest Hamlet Like Posh Sake Shylock Whether World You Like It

Quote Author

Timothy Spall
English - Actor
Born: February 27, 1957

I look forward to the day when indigenous actors can play Hamlet and Ophelia and not just Othello and Desdemona.

Shari Sebbens

With Othello, Shakespeare posed this problem of a black man in a white society in the role that he's playing. And Shakespeare gave Othello such dignity - he came not from - as he said - not from hate but from honor, from a sense of his own human dignity. And to me, to my mind, there could be no greater character played.

Paul Robeson

We shouldn't confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, "My character this, and my character that." Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don't have to explain it to me.

Bob Dylan

Even in the days when they did Othello, you didn't necessarily have to be black to play Othello. You wore the makeup.

Jamie Farr

Shakespeare without Othello, Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet would be all too much like Hamlet without the prince.

Brand Blanshard

My father used to act in high school. He was in a production of 'Othello;' I don't know who he played, but it wasn't Othello. He would talk about it, though, and read Shakespeare to me.

Lupita Nyong'o

There's two types of character actors. There's character actors who play all different characters. Or there's actors who always play the same part; they're just a bit funny-looking.

Timothy Spall

A character I would love to play is Iago, from Othello.

Tim Roth

I am no Othello, Othello was a lie.

Tayeb Salih

I want to play everything. I want to be like Christian Bale: I want to be able to be Batman and then, like, his character in 'The Fighter.' That is what is so impressive about really good actors, that they can be character actors and leading men at the same time.

Ansel Elgort

In Othello, Othello kills Desdemona, but no one reads that play as a model for their own behavior. In Lou Reed's case, you're listening to a song, and in my case you're reading about a life. Like Lou, I trust my audience to make their own moral determinations.

Anthony DeCurtis

I love what I do. And in the true sense, from my training, I try to create a character each time. It is something I do. But I don't want that term to limit what I can do. I prefer people to say to me, 'You're one of my favorite actors,' rather than 'You're one of my favorite character actors.' It sounds like a slam.

William Forsythe

As a young actor, I was advised to bide my time. Back then, there weren't good roles for someone like me. There were handsome leading men and character actors for smaller supporting roles. But I was told to hang in there, and it was good advice. We're all character actors now. Even a handsome man is a character actor at my age.

Jim Broadbent

The great character actors are now the actors whose work has the element of ritual sacrifice once claimed by the DeNiros of the world, as well as the element of danger - the actors who thrill us by going for broke.

Tom Junod

Particularly, the actors, to have analyzed the script in great detail from the point of view of their specific character. So that they have a handle on exactly where the character is in the chronology of things. In that sense the actors become your best check on the logic of the piece, and the way in which it all fits together. They become essential collaborators. The main thing is you have to work with very smart actors.