After the articles for Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch, I wanted to write another one. Quotes are not exactly difficult to find (interviews are available to us, we just have to look them up), but it took me some time to decide who will be the… protagonist today. And he is Robert Carlyle. So, my lovelies, what else would you add to our list? And what films with our dear actor would you recommend?
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“I was an only child. My mother had gone – and it’s fucking boring and I don’t want to talk about it – but all of that came to me at that time in my life. The injustice of that, suddenly, when you’re a teenager.” (source)
“For the first time I was able to go into a room and shout and scream. I was finding these wee plays with people shouting and screaming about things that were important to them, and I thought: ‘This is interesting. I can shout and scream my stuff inside them.'” (source)
“I didn’t want to hear the word ‘actor’ come out of my mouth. And then there’s the celebrity world, which I abhor with every fibre of my being … I don’t want to be seen as being part of that. What I’d thought it was about was all these guys in a room, creating stuff. There was no ‘luvvie this’ or ‘darling that’, as far as I was concerned. Yet I was in an industry where every journalist would put the term ‘luvvie’ before the word ‘actor’. It took a long time for me to accept I was an actor, a professional actor, and that, actually, I make a living out of this.” (source)
What’s your idea of heaven and earth?
“Me and my wife and kids on a beach in Barbados… that would do me.” (source)
What’s your earliest memory?
“I was two and in my father’s arms at the back of a cinema seeing the projector lights and smoke. I can remember this really big image. Must be the light thing that does it, you know, that tunnel of light. Maybe I nearly died.” (source)
“Rumplestiltskin and Mr Gold are obviously intrinsically linked. In some way, they are pretty much spawn of the same person. What interested me about the change between the fairytale world and the real world was that there wasn’t such a massive jump in actual fact. It wasn’t as if fantasy fairytale jumped into social realism or something like that. I don’t think that would necessarily work. I think Storybrooke [the modern day ‘real’ town] is slightly off balance. Everything’s off-kilter. So Gold and Rumplestiltskin, though physically different, in their head there’s an awful lot of similarities there. And I think through the episodes that the guys write, we’ll begin to discover that.” (source)
“I suppose in Hollywood they’re probably not quite sure what to make of me, where to place me. But that’s always been my goal, to try and remain floating. It’s very difficult not to be pigeonholed, though every actor is to a greater or lesser extent.” (source)
What are the principles behind you taking on any role?
“My relationship is with the director or producer, on any film. That’s the same, or it should be, for any actor. The priority is with the director and the cast you’ve got about you, and the first thing that should have attracted you all is the script. If you can get those three elements in place, you’ve got a chance. It’s not always foolproof. Another element is the whole marketing of the film, and how that then affects it. But in the beginning you can only cover so many bases. The prime thing is always the script, the director and the cast.” (source)
“I love music. Love a good gig before a film any day of the week. I use music a lot when I am working. I really wish I had learned the guitar at an early age and ran off and joined a band. I am the archetypal frustrated rock star and have many friends in the music industry.” (source)
“As time has gone on to the great old age of 51, I’ve reached a very comfortable place where I don’t have to battle anymore. I actually understand what it is to be an actor, to actually understand what it is to work on film and television. It’s always been a voyage of discovery for me. In the past few years, I think it’s opened up for me suddenly and there’s a difference in my performances from ten years ago. Thank God, we all want to move on, don’t we?” (source)
“There’s something about these performances in the past few years. In a slight sense it’s about age but without a doubt it has also given me what I used to call weight. I remember when I was in Scotland and I first started acting with these older actors and they had weight. They didn’t have to act. It was just there. I think I’m finally on that path to gravitas.” (source)
by Elena Atudosiei
[…] he is just the man… the son, the father. Well, not until I put together the article with the quotes, but even then it was mostly about his career. And now… where to begin? First of all, let me […]