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Sometimes I think it's easier to play someone who's very, very different from yourself. Besides, I wouldn't want to play people who are just like me; that would get awfully boring very fast!

Often, it's easier to play someone further away from you because it's clearer who they are. I think if you want to make a performance authentic, there are a certain amount of leaps of faith into the unknown that you have to take. Otherwise, you're not really risking anything.

I think that playing characters far away from who I am as a person is a lot more fun and a lot more exciting, and you can play with it a lot more because it's not you and it's so far from you, so that's very liberating as far as that goes.

I don't know if I've ever played a character who's close to me. There have been some elements of myself in different roles. Sometimes, I show one side of myself and then completely conceal the other.

I think it's necessary to identify with anything - with any character you play, there's got to be something in common, so you can link up to that person, even if it's like one tiny thing. But it's equally fun to play somebody completely different, and trying to find what that thing is to make it.

I'd rather play a character that was really, really different to me as to someone who is quite close to my character.

I don't really get a buzz from playing characters that are similar to me 'cause that's not acting to me.

In many ways, playing a real person is slightly easier because you have a road map. When you're playing someone fictitious, there's myriad ways in. With a real person, there's boundaries, and that sometimes makes the work easier.

I enjoy playing people that are totally different than me.

I feel like people assume if a character is very different than you, that means it's difficult to get into their head or into their skin.