What you look like, whether you're Brad Pitt or Charles Laughton, is significant for actors.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I don't even think of myself as particularly good looking, and not at all a typical kind of Hollywood leading man sort of actor.
What's really interesting about actors, is that we all have opinions on how people's careers look, but I think you never have any idea of your own, or what other people think of you.
It's something that I think I'm going to have to fight against for most of my career, for people to take me seriously as an actor as opposed to a good-looking guy. It's not what I want to be known as.
When you're an actor you don't really know what you have to do until you see what you look like.
I'm quite lucky in that at certain angles I look all right, and at others I don't look so good, which enables me to play some leading roles and some stranger, more 'character'-type parts. I wouldn't say I'm the conventional handsome Hollywood leading man.
How you look is part of what acting is, but the way I look at it, every actor is a character actor. Someone once told me at a casting, 'You're a character actor in a leading man's body,' and I can live with that.
I'm forever being told that I'm an odd-looking actress, so it's great playing parts where there's no vanity. You just look as rough as you possibly can!
As an actor, you don't have much choice about your appearance. It's a good excuse for looking ridiculous.
Let's face facts, this is visual medium, there's a very high premium put on people who are good-looking. But the minute you rely on that you get yourself in trouble. You certainly don't make a career out of that anymore as an actor.
As an actor, you have to understand how you are seen and then play with that. Otherwise, my looks are not important.