Stephen Root Quotations

My influences are people like Burgess Meredith, Jackie Gleason, Art Carney. Really good character actors than stars because they do more interesting things. Some of your favorite movies are ones you visit again are due to the great character actors in them.

People are on their computers more than watching TV, because you can only watch voyeur TV, which is basically what reality shows are, for so long.

Television sitcom means a little play each week in front of a live audience. On film, you might spend all day on one scene, doing it from different angles, and they can be more interesting sometimes due to the script, or nature of the project. So I enjoy both mediums for different reasons.

It's so hard to make a living as an actor, with 95% of the SAG members unemployed at one time. That includes all the different unions, too, that unless you HAVE to do it, that it's in your soul and you MUST do it you feel, don't do it.

In order for comedy to be funny you have to play the truth of the moment. But if you're not being completely truthful to the basis of the character, its not going to be funny.

It's good for you to go somewhere that you wouldn't normally go.

Movies are an editor's medium.

My whole career, I've tried to bounce back and forth between everything, and not get typed out. I've done a pretty good job of not getting typed.

The more you work, the more people see your work and would like to work with you, and vice versa.

You have to remind casting directors out here that you don't just do one thing. There's a lot of people who do just one thing.

I'm more interested in knowing my cues than my lines. If you know what your cues are, then you know what your reaction is going to be to them. Acting is about reacting, and if I can kind of purely react, that's easier for me.

In TV, when you're doing guest roles, you're gliding into a zone where people are already very comfortable. They go in and go to work every day. You're coming in, and it's a brand-new environment, so you have to get it... and then you're gone again.

My goal as an actor was to work - to be a working actor, whether it was in theater, and, well, I didn't even consider film and television when I was in New York, but what came along, came along.

Researching real people and doing them, I think, is harder than anything else. You don't want to do a caricature of them and you don't want to do an impression. You just want to do the best you can, in terms of presenting their views and a general impression of the guy. That's the hardest thing to do, real people.

I've been able to do a lot of interesting things.

I'm thrilled to get hired every once in a while.

It's easier to play a dim character, for me, because I have a natural bent for comedy. It's not intrinsic for me to be crafty, so I would have to go outside for a source of origin. I think of myself as pretty dim.

When I worked with Robin Williams, now there is improv! He is just as funny as you think he is. We did at least five or six takes of every scene, improvising every scene differently. He was a riot.

The ratio of people to cake is too big.

I would have to say News Radio is the highlight of my career. I love the character so much.

It's fun to do voiceover work, although you still have to act. But it doesn't involve memorizing lines, and you don't have to dress up.

I don't aspire to direct like many actors. I would aspire most likely to do some writing, but I haven't had a chance to do that.

I was a big comic book fan from 13 on.

I'm from New York, so I'm a big Howard Stern fan.

I'm lucky I get to work a lot.

Well, I think probably when I first got in the business, I wasn't thinking of being strictly a character actor. But I knew I wanted to be a working actor, and as the years have gone on, I just naturally evolved into that. Because, y'know, I'm not a leading guy. Never was.