Ben Mendelsohn Quotes

One of my earlier films is 'Quigley Down Under.' That was early on in my career, and that was horsey.

I don't have memorabilia but try to take a bit of wardrobe, usually because they dress me better than I dress myself.

I don't believe in the transformation myth, where if you have more success, life changes for you.

There were the usual types of things that happen, in a production, like logistical bullshit, and this and that and the other. That's the sort of stuff that happened. But I never felt, in a creative sense, that we were ever veering into a place that I hadn't signed on for.

It would be excellent to do a 'Star Wars.'

You think of 'Outlaw Josey Wales,' you immediately think of the old Indian guy, Sondra Locke, the old lady with the glasses, beautiful old actress.

'Animal Kingdom' is a lot of things, but it's not heartwarming.

'Animal Kingdom' was an amalgam of two people that I had met-slash-known, not particularly well. They were both very, very scary people for very different reasons.

I never felt like someone who was boyish and coming to terms with asking girls out or anything like that, which was what 'The Big Steal' and 'Spotswood' were about. But I guess that's the impression I left on people.

If you ride like lightning, you're gonna crash like thunder.

I'm very cagey by nature.

There are two things: 1) what things one does in the world, and 2) what family one has. There's the two really tangible things that can stay.

I wanted to keep working because work was essentially fantastic - you got to be around people, you got to be in a family, and that family changed from job to job. It was like being in the circus.

I think there's a lot of mythos about what's required in acting.

As an outsider in America, you do see the kind of hypocrisy that's rampant there.

'Star Wars' is populated by so many great types; who wouldn't want to be a Han Solo kind of dude?

I've been a Ryan Reynolds fan since the first time I saw him.

You can certainly extend your adolescence. There's people that are very good at extending it indefinitely.

'Slow West' is a western, and it's sort of a twist on the genre stylistically, I think, from what I understand going in.

I grew up loving the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood westerns.

The very rough story is this: Melbourne boy, out of both my parents' houses at a young age, lived with my grandmother, drama teacher twisted me into doing this TV thing that I thought my mates were doing, too.

I remember 'The Yearling' was the first film I ever saw, and my mom told me I cried for about four or five days afterwards. I'd be going along during the day and suddenly start crying over what had happened to the little deer.

It's good to surf whatever waves are going on right there as they're happening.

In a very real sense, all you do when you're shooting film or television is you shoot a scene, and then you shoot another scene, and then you shoot another scene.

If you're a 'character actor,' you get hired to play baddies a lot.

My general feeling about approach to work is that anyone that's there, they're all there to do the best job they can.

I got a good-enough adolescence. I mean, there's a sense wherein you skip a part of childhood, too, when you start working at that age I did; I was out working and out of home at 15, paying my own way in the world.

I suspect, for a lot of people who become actors, there's a feeling of wanting to be someone other than who they actually are.

It's got a lot more room for nuance and an assumption that people have started from the beginning. 'Bloodline' ends up being like a really good novel.

Acting is broad enough a church that you can pick your races, decide which way you want to go at different times.I think that the story and circumstance tends to dictate the most and then what you do with your own approach after that.

I think that story wins out over acting and that the thing as a whole is more important than the performances therein.

There are always dimensions, and the way they get expressed is through the writing and the actors and the director you get to work with on that day. But there are always dimensions, outside of really basic stuff for very young people where it needs to be very clear.

It's a tougher gig than what people think it is. The proper, real, genuine, worldwide movie stars don't get a lot of downtime from the world outside. That's a tougher price, I think, than what people's fantasy of fame account for.

From my point of view, things don't have to change to get better. Things are fantastic.

Crewing and being on film sets is kind of like being in the carnival, with carnie folks.

I don't know that it exists, the perfect family. It's always complicated.

The people I've encountered who are really dangerous in my life don't go around with their fangs drawn - they are dangerous because of the way they interpret what's going on.

If you're going to be a father and whatnot, yeah, you better be responsible about it as best you can.

The people that impress me are Bob Dylan. The ones who keep working, year in and year out, and keep coming up with stuff.

Fassbender is fearless; he's a fearless actor.

Once upon a time, they thought I was a sweet, wide-eyed boy that was just trying to figure out how to kiss the girl. Lots of comic relief and adolescent yearnings.

For me it's a compliment, playing baddie characters. I take it as a compliment.

I did 'Quigley Down Under,' which is quite deliberately placed in Australia, which is a Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman, Laura San Giacomo film from '88, I want to say.

There's very little different between the way the government operates in America and the way criminals do.

If you've been working since you were a teenager and working at a reasonably decent level, then you don't expect that you're going to be firmly in your 40s and start moving up in the world, if you like.

Most young actors, that's all they're trying to do: Get better at acting and be able to keep doing it. And that doesn't work out for most people.

I think now there's much more of a confessional culture. That's not my bag. I come from a slightly older school of thought: 'give 'em nothin.' You don't plead guilty.

I had a pretty good career at home. What keeps you going is not having a plan B. It's a very good thing. I think if I had a viable plan B, I might not have kept going.

I was with my grandmother, while one of my brothers lived with my dad, and one lived with my mom. It wasn't a great situation. Acting was the one good thing I was involved in.

People don't know who I am, and that's not a bad thing at all from my end.

My favorite-ever version of 'King Lear' is the 1971 film by Peter Brooks. He has this enormous fur thing, and it adds enormous gravitas.

Accents are always difficult in their way, but as long as you're not throwing an audience off with it, then that's all it should be.

At any period of an actor's life, it's fairly likely that they'll be cast in ways that are reminiscent. That's the way it goes.

The thing about acting is you have to wait to be asked to the dance.

I think Kyle Chandler is something of a national treasure.