I ran like a champion. It is a great consolation to show how dominant I am. I am the Olympic champion and the world champion, but I want Justin Gatlin to be the champion of everything.
I watched a film with a very famous, great, great actor, I won't mention his name because everyone loves his memory, but I thought, "God he was acting a lot." Great actor, but nonstop acting. Wall to wall, fitted-carpet acting.
I'd like to be a working actor. It sounds really trite, but there really are no small parts, only small actors. And so as long as I'm a working actor, I can improve.
I feel good cinema, be it big or small, with small actor or big actor, it always works.
I love to read scripts. But I am very happy right now to say that I am a working actor. In this town of Los Angeles, the phrase 'I'm an actor' is overrated. So, I like to say, 'I'm a working actor.'
I am not a star. I am an actor. I have been fighting for years to make people forget that I am just a pretty boy with a beautiful face. It's a hard fight, but I will win it. I want the public to realize that above all I am an actor, a very professional one who loves every minute of being in front of the camera. But one who becomes very miserable the instant the director shouts, 'Cut!'
People know that I have a great love for cinema. Not just for commercial cinema, but for the “cinema d’auteur.” But to me, two of the great “auteurs” are actually actors and they both happen to be French. One is Alain Delon and the other is Jean-Paul Belmondo.
There are many things, as an actor, where you find that a production just wants you for your name. I am not a big, big, big name, but maybe they can sell the movie if I am in it. This I don't like.
When I came to Mumbai, I knew that I am an actor but I am not a working actor. To keep this actor alive, I had to feed him, I took up the casting job so that I can run my house.
I want to stay active and busy. I don't just want to fight a no-name opponent. I want a decent name or a big name or a world champion, somebody who is going to challenge me. That's just it.
I'll just put it this way: I've struggled enough as a working actor - and, most of the times, a not working actor - to know that anytime you are working is a blessing.
More than an actor, I am a performer... I'm a great believer - honestly so, shamelessly so, vulgarly so - that cinema is for entertainment. If you want to send messages, there's the postal service.
I am 100-films old. In my heyday, I have done a lot of commercial films, including dancing around the trees with the heroine. But after working with Rituparno Ghosh, my understanding of cinema changed. Whatever good I am doing, it is because of him. If I am being called a good actor, it is only because of him.
I think, for an actor, the whole world is a place of work because if you focus on characters and on stories, they are everywhere, so yeah, I feel very privileged to have had this great opportunities in the international cinema and especially in the American cinema.
I've never worn a dress shirt that's been comfortable. I've always just worn dress shoes. On more than one occasion, I've heard that a champion should dress like a champion. But I'm a champion because of who I am. Who I am is not that guy. If everybody wears three-piece suits, everyone looks the same.
I was born in a small village in Kerala. From there, I went on to play for the Kerala state team and international test cricket for India, and now I am working in TV shows and cinema... Any miracle can happen.