You'd never play Hamlet if you started worrying about who's played it before you. Matthew Macfadyen More Quotes by Matthew Macfadyen More Quotes From Matthew Macfadyen I think people ought to do what they feel useful at the time. If I do things because I ought to do them, I switch off. Matthew Macfadyen feels people thinking I don't feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor. Matthew Macfadyen actors feels character I love TV and I love making films and I love doing plays. I feel very lucky to be able to do all three. Matthew Macfadyen three lucky play Actors have to remind people that they can do different things, not just the same style of one role. Matthew Macfadyen style different people The security comes, as an actor, in knowing that you're not in control. If you try to control your career, or how people perceive you, you'll make yourself unhappy, because life doesn't work like that. So much is luck. It's much better to let yourself off, to think, 'There's nothing I can do.' Matthew Macfadyen careers knowing thinking No one will guide you in the right direction, in the end you have to learn for yourself. You have to grow up yourself. Matthew Macfadyen aging guides growing-up Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. Even the real monsters have to have a spark of something you can relate to. Matthew Macfadyen real character thinking As much as I long for a sort of security and consistency sometimes, I do enjoy sort of being busted around. I really don't know what's happening sometimes next week, let alone this year. Matthew Macfadyen long next-week years The actor in me would always like to be more dashing, or slimmer, or have nicer hair. Matthew Macfadyen dashing actors hair You never know how films are going to do and it is daunting if I think about it. Matthew Macfadyen know-how film thinking I can't throw books away. My wife is always telling me to get rid of some. Matthew Macfadyen my-wife wife book I try to be fussy about the parts I play. I think that's quite prudent, it means you're stretching different muscles, and you're scaring yourself by doing something which is out of your comfort zone. Matthew Macfadyen play mean thinking I wouldn't want to leave it so long before doing a play again, I get very stolid and sluggish if I do too much telly. Matthew Macfadyen want play long There's always a concern as an actor that you'll be boring unless your character is swinging from a chandelier. Matthew Macfadyen boring actors character I did four or five years in telly, and by the end of it was drained. I was a bit sick of myself. I didn't feel like an actor anymore. That sounds silly, but when you're doing a play you're using different muscles, and it blew all the cobwebs away. Matthew Macfadyen play silly years I think it sits quite happily with me, the condition of being an actor. I see some people getting quite eaten up with it, with the insecurities. There are times when I long for continuity and stability, but I also love the idea of not knowing what I'll be doing next - or even if I'm going to work. Matthew Macfadyen knowing ideas thinking Nobody's just arrogant. I've met people who are embattled and dismissive, but when you get to know them, you find that they're vulnerable - that that hauteur or standoffishiness is because they're pedaling furiously underneath. Matthew Macfadyen arrogant vulnerable people Apart from earning an awful lot of money, why would you go to Hollywood? Matthew Macfadyen awful hollywood earning What's exciting is there's a curtain that divides the audience from this other world. You want to see behind. Matthew Macfadyen curtains other-worlds want Some British actors are snobby about telly, and I don't understand that. Matthew Macfadyen snobby british actors
