De Niro was a hero of mine. And Sean Penn. But I've realized I can't operate at that level of intensity. That's okay for movies. On TV, when you live with horror day in and day out, you have to protect yourself. Christopher Meloni More Quotes by Christopher Meloni More Quotes From Christopher Meloni It ain't easy to break out of a mold, but if you do your work, people will ultimately see what you're capable of. Too often, people find it easier to make assumptions and stick with what they believe. They put you in a place and it makes their job easier. The good people constantly search for something different. Christopher Meloni jobs believe people I love to act. I need to act. It's the big itch I need to scratch. Christopher Meloni scratches bigs needs You can be childlike without being childish. A child always wants to have fun. Ask yourself, 'Am I having fun?' Christopher Meloni want fun children The surprising thing about fatherhood was finding my inner mush. Now I want to share it with the world. Christopher Meloni want father world My first thought when I came here was that I understood why there are so many great Irish writers - because there is something mystical in the air. There's always this cloudy, moody sky and it's challenging. Christopher Meloni challenges air sky If you take life at face value, it loses its luster pretty quickly. If you go after it, you get more out of it. Christopher Meloni face-value lust faces But when you're a working actor - and that's what you keep saying in your head, how blessed you are to have a job - and you are working with heavyweights, working with the best guys in TV, it's pretty cool. Exhausting, but cool. Christopher Meloni guy blessed jobs We went online to surrogacy agencies. We interviewed lots of people - and I have to say, with all due respect, some of them were freaks. I was very leery of the process the whole way through. Christopher Meloni agency people way I still have a dream of one day - I would love to hire a semi-retired contractor and just build a house - him and I building a house for me. I would truly love to do that Christopher Meloni one-day dream house I think we present extreme aspects of human behavior and hopefully get at times, messages across or bring issues to the table or as we so often say, shed light into the dark crevices of human nature Christopher Meloni issues dark thinking I didn't get into acting to be a public service announcer or an advocate and yet, by virtue of this show and how we handle the subject matter that we've been given, that's kind of how it's evolved in certain ways. Christopher Meloni acting matter way I'm just an actor, but if the extra part of it is that I'm helping people or people are being helped by the virtue of what we're doing, then that's just a really nice added extra. Christopher Meloni actors nice people Crime is one of the leads of the show. If there's ever anything that deals with a character's personal life, you don't have to worry about it getting too crazy. People don't have to worry about character arcs. Each episode is a self-contained unit. Christopher Meloni crazy self character You can watch any episode you want and have a compelling story being told. Christopher Meloni stories want watches How that works is our first season was the year we had a threatened writers' strike, so what we did was that instead of doing 22 episodes, we did 30. We put 10 in the bank. Christopher Meloni episodes years firsts I think Chris Rock at the Oscars was a great example. I thought that was intellectually hilarious. The Gap starts a war with Banana Republic... That to me was funny. Christopher Meloni war funny thinking This is a dream come true. To wake up in a place that I own and go to work in New York City as an actor - I feel like Mary Tyler Moore throwing her friggin' hat in the air. Christopher Meloni new-york air dream I took acting classes in college, and once I graduated, I decided to give acting a shot when I couldn't really think of anything else to do. It took me a couple of years to get an agent, and my first big break was The Fanelli Boys, which was a sitcom on NBC. Then I did a few television movies. Christopher Meloni couple college boys I've got the best of all worlds. It's every actor's dream to wake up in New York City and go to an acting job rather than to a restaurant to wash dirty dishes. And I live so close to the studios that I ride my bike to work. Christopher Meloni new-york dream jobs I'm always learning from experiences because each one is different and there are different players involved in the project at the time with their own way of doing things Christopher Meloni different player way
