John C. Reilly quotes - page 2

Surprising people is the key to career longevity for someone like me. (John C. Reilly)
I would consider directing. I think directing myself would be tough, but I'm definitely interested in directing. I might start off directing a play before I move to a film.
John C. Reilly
I come from a pretty working-class neighborhood in Chicago. Hard work was just expected of you. It wasn't some noble thing you did; it was a prerequisite. It's what a man did. You get up, you put on your boots, and you work hard. We've lost a lot of that, I'm afraid.
John C. Reilly
I really enjoy my time off. If I'm going to go to work, it has to be something I really believe in, or else it's totally tedious.
John C. Reilly
That's one of the difficult things of being an actor that I'm still not used to. You have to go, you have to show up at these places where you know nobody, and sometimes with really impressive, high stakes people like Roman Polanski.
John C. Reilly
Movies are this thing that came into my life, and it still feels pretend in some way. I kind of do this thing, and I never really accepted this idea that I'm a film actor. That's what I do. I feel like I'm a theater actor that started doing films. Most people have never seen me in a play. They're fun, though.
John C. Reilly
I like being employed, you know. That's my favorite kind of acting.
John C. Reilly
I kinda taught myself how to play guitar, and I still play to this day. It's become a pretty big part of my life.
John C. Reilly
I like how pure the expression is in music. You can go straight to the heart of an audience rather than through their brain.
John C. Reilly
Hey, I'm just trying to become the Michael Caine/Gene Hackman of my generation.
John C. Reilly
For a while I had a blues band in L.A., but I realized I was too optimistic to play the blues. I did not have the misery in my heart that the blues required. (John C. Reilly)
Here's the thing, with comedy - and I learned this from Will Ferrell - you can't be ashamed. If you're doing comedy, you have to fully commit to the joke. Shame is not part of it. If you act shy or uncomfortable about your body, that makes the audience shy and uncomfortable. And in a comedy you just want them to loosen up and laugh.
John C. Reilly
I always say it takes as much preparation and thought to do a small part as a leading part. In some ways, leads are easier because you have the luxury of time to discover the character.
John C. Reilly
Honestly, to tell you the truth, being trapped in any video game sounds like a living nightmare to me. In most video games, the point is it's a fight for survival, so I think it would be a terrifying place to live.
John C. Reilly
This whole celebrity racket, it's not really my bag. I don't really do that stuff, and I am not looking to get famous myself. I would love it if my characters get famous, my work was well known and appreciated. But I'm an actor, not a spokes model or a celebrity or whatever that is. I don't know how to be that.
John C. Reilly
Hollywood is an illusion. These intense workplaces, with very close relationships, a few months at a time - and then it ends.
John C. Reilly
A script is like a theory of a movie.
John C. Reilly
I love that people can't place me. They don't know my name. That's 'mission accomplished' in my world.
John C. Reilly
If people want to see me in comedies, that's fine with me.
John C. Reilly
My family are all storytellers, and I think I inherited a lot more of that gene than other people in my family. I guess I was fun to have around.
John C. Reilly
I actually envy actors who have a persona: 'This is the way I am. This is the part I play.' And do it over and over and over. To me, that's a lot easier than trying to reinvent yourself every six months. (John C. Reilly)
A lot of times, good improv is when both people, or however many people are in the scene, really have no idea what the next thing you're going to say is.
John C. Reilly
I've never been someone who's been given work because of the way I look or because I have some box office appeal. I get work because people know I'm swinging as hard as I can, trying to connect, giving it my level best. I have a face for radio, but here I am doing what I do.
John C. Reilly
Once you become tagged as anything, it becomes difficult to shake it, because the less imaginative people in the business want you to do what worked for the last guy. That's always been something I've had to deal with.
John C. Reilly
Whatever the reasons that I turn things down, I'm always happy when there's a good result, and I can enjoy it as a movie, you know? I don't feel like, 'Oh man, that was really good. I should have done it.' You have to make the decisions you have to make, whether it has to do with your family or repeating a character or whatever it is.
John C. Reilly