I just wanted to be an actor. I was hoping for opportunities to unveil, and I wanted to make the most of whatever came my way.
I never ever played the lead role in a play, except at school. I guess the industry that we're in, boys that look like me don't get the lead role.
I do like ensemble work. I would like to do a lead role, though. I didn't shy away from that.
I'm desperately looking for a lead role to do in a film, an independent film, and it just hasn't come my way yet. I'm desperately looking for that role that will put me in a lead category. Or a television series.
When opportunities come my way, I'm going to try to make the play.
Whatever role I play is a positive role; it's a strong role. Never negative.
That's really why I wanted to do it. I wanted to be a part of this generation's telling of Camelot, and also get the chance to play a fantastic, complex, interesting, emotionally passionate, young lead role.
Most beginners want to learn lead because they think it's cool .. consequently, they never really develop good rhythm skills .. since most of a rock guitarists time is spent playing rhythm, it's important to learn to do it well .. learning lead should come after you can play solid backup and have the sound of the chords in your head
He wanted us to play whatever we played in the most characteristic and appropriate style. Even it was the theme from 'The Godfather,' you needed to play that then the way that a Hollywood producer would expect it to be played. Whether it was that or the posthorn solo from Mahler's Symphony No. 3, he would expect that to be played in the way that Leonard Bernstein wanted to hear it. In retrospect, I think it was a sensational way to teach this particular group of students. By the time you graduated you could absolutely read anything with any trumpet.
As an actor, I just made the most of the opportunities that came my way and I owe it to my directors for having given me characters with substance, as I have never gone around asking for a role.
I would never have wanted to play with Magic Johnson, I would never have wanted to play with Michael Jordan, I would never have wanted to play with Karl Malone or John Stockton in my prime. We wanted to play against the Shaqs, the Kobes.
Now, there doesn't have to necessarily be a white man in the lead role. That's the way forward. That's diversity. It's cool if an Indian is playing the lead role in a Hollywood project, and we should be proud of this.
Sri Krishna says whatever role we have in life, we have to play it to the hilt. We have to take it all the way. We have to assume responsibility for our role. To run away from it causes misery.
I think typically you'd start in a supporting role or an ensemble role, or maybe even an off-Broadway role. So to come into a lead role on Broadway, especially taking over a role that has been played by two phenomenal actors in the past, that is some large shoes to fill.
Being a lead role in a play in Vegas? Like, come on! How much bigger can it get?
I had no expectation of the level of adulation that would come my way. I just wanted to make a living with a regular role in a television series.
In my journey, I got amazing characters to play which were as interesting as a lead role. In 'Commando,' my role was so good. I feel no actor have rejected that kind of a role.