A Quote by Steven Rodney McQueen
Audiences make their minds up about people they see on screen, just like they do in real life. That's what fascinates me in film. You see a character and have to think: is this person different to what I assumed he was when I first saw him?
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When I'm inside the character, I feel like I'm a different person, and then when you see that character on screen and I see that it's me, I find that disappointing.
I would like to say something deeper, but for me, I saw a production of "Fences" in Rhode Island and a fabulous actress played Rose, but when she first came on the stage she was mad. You could just see it. She was all, "Troy stop!" So by the time you get to the revelation scene, I didn't think she loved him, so there was no loss. I think that the real tragedy and the real drama or the thing that makes you lean in is to see the love, to see the commitment. To see the fact that Rose is invested in this marriage no matter what.
My first film, 'Like Minds,' was with Toni Colette, who was extraordinary. I mean it was basically a mini-masterclass for acting on film at a time when all you could probably see were my eyebrows bouncing up and down on screen.
My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person. People are only glamorous if you don't see them. Like the movies used to make people years ago. There is something about people on screen that makes them so special; when you see them in person, they are so different and the whole illusion is gone.
I think about what I grew up seeing, what I didn't see growing up, and what it felt like when I did see someone who I thought that I could relate to, just living their life on screen.
If I didn't end up talking about the things that I care about, I wouldn't be myself. I didn't like the idea that I would be a different person on the internet than I would be in real life. And I see people struggling. I see people who face prejudice and people who feel invisible. And I recognize that I already have a built-in platform that I can utilize so easily to actually do something.
For me, as a film goer, I like nothing more than to sit in the cinema, have the lights go down and not know what I'm about to see or unfold on-screen. Every time we go to make a film, we do everything we can to try to systematise things so we're able to make the film in private, so that when it's finished it's up to the audience to make of it what they will.
People in big studios are like, 'People want to see other people who are skinny and happy and amazing.' But I think, nowadays, they are realising that what sells is real people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures and size. People want to see themselves represented on screen, and it's a real cool thing for everyone.
If I hear that a film of mine is going to be shown on a big screen somewhere and I haven't seen it in a while, I make a point to get to see it. I just want to see it up on the big screen.
I don't feel the pressure to deliver an unrealistically great man to the screen; I just want to be honest to who my character is on the page. If I can reflect that and put some heart into him and make him real, then I think I've done my job, and I think that people will like who he is.
What people don't understand about making a film is sometimes your experience on the film shapes who you are. You're gone to another country for five months, maybe more, there's training leading up to it... It's a whole life experience that people don't see because they just see the final product wrapped up in a couple hours. You don't see everything that happens around it. I think it's hard to say one movie or one thing; I think they all shape who you are.
I am a shy person, basically. I don't think I can take my shirt off in front of so many people. I never thought about it. No one asked me to. But I don't even know if people like it if they see me without a shirt all of a sudden. But let's see, if a film demands it, I might just do it.
When we kind of get caught up in the minutiae, the details that make us all different, I think there's two ways of seeing that. There's an opportunity to see the texture of that person, the characteristics that make them unique. And then there's an opportunity to go to war about it and to say that that person is different from me and I don't like you, so let's battle.
So books are real to me, too; they link me not just with other minds but with the vision of other minds, what those minds understand and see. I see their worlds as well as I see my own.
If I was discovered by anyone, it would be Stephen O'Neil, who saw me in a play at Williamstown and introduced me to my team who I'm still with today. He was the first person to introduce me to the film and TV world. Other than that, I just assumed I would be a theater actor my whole life.
It takes a while for audiences on film to see you as something different if they've seen you for so long as a specific character. It's up to the actor to be like, 'Look man, let's try something else,' even if it's an ultra-low-budget independent. People who rep you will keep going with whatever they can send you on.
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