actors-from-new-jersey

"I call myself an action figure in real life and a superhero in fake life."

"Actors talk about a love of craft and contributing to artistic welfare. But, really, I think [the desire to act] came for me from wanting more attention from my parents."

"When you’re playing a part you’re not just thinking about genre. ‘Oh this part is gonna be action then drama and I’m gonna tell some jokes and be funny…’ I don’t compartmentalise it like that."

"Over the last 10 years, I never made a very concerted effort to mix it up. I just wanted to work on things that I liked. But I think I was feeling some fatigue over that and wanted to try something different."

"I don’t come from a family of actors, I didn’t grow up around it and so when I go to Los Angeles for work, or to a premiere, I like it because it feels like I’m just popping in."

"There’s nothing sexy about nice; there’s nothing alluring or intriguing. And yet, I really love it when people are nice. Because honestly, I just think life is so hard. There are so many things that can get you down—that are so frustrating and so maddening. As cornball as it sounds, kindness is a thing that can defuse it a little bit. Kindness and laughs."

"I don’t have any sort of grand statement to make, to anybody. I don’t want people to know that much about me, really. I don’t have much of an interest in being an open book."

"I figured early on [acting] was what I wanted to do for a job. And I certainly hoped it would work out, and that I would be playing lots of different parts. But I don't think I anticipated being an ant!"

"You hear some comics that used to play colleges all the time. They don’t want to do that any more, because there’s no room for any kind of daring comedy. Everybody’s gonna be pissed off about something. And that’s… a drag."

"I also think there’s something about the Midwest. The people that I grew up with in the Midwest — there’s something hardwired in them that they just don’t take themselves too seriously. They don’t get too big for their britches."

"I wanted to be an actor. I never wanted to grow up. I never wanted to. I wanted to fly."

"I realized that the actors were the last hired and the first fired. There are no facts here in movies and television really, it's all opinions forcibly argued and if you can express your opinion articulately and with force and belief, you can win this, you can do this, and I just loved it."

"I'm impressed with the people from Chicago. Hollywood is hype, New York is talk​, Chicago is work."

"Cancer didn't bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet."

"This year, 2020, is the worst year of my life. I was born in 1944, so I took no part in the Second World War. But this is one of the worst things I can imagine. The pandemic affects everyone, regardless of their financial status. The only hope I have is that it brings us all a little closer. But it is a tragedy, and it indicates which countries have strong governments and those which do not. I hope that it will prepare us for the next time."

"I'm a risk-taker. Most of my career has not been a joyful experience, but it has been challenging. I like the dangers."

"I said it as Gordon Gekko, but I don’t believe that greed is good. The size of fortunes in finance have increased. It’s an accumulation of our political system over the past 30 years; the amount of money that’s invested in certain politicians, so the politician is not responsible to his constituency, but to the people who financially supported him. What you’re seeing now is the result of years of choosing the person who has the best financial connections. I’m sure Gordon Gekko would have been friends with Donald Trump. I’ve known Donald fairly well over the years, in New York. They would probably play golf together!"

"The Cold War's end pushed disarmament down most leaders' agendas. It's a sophisticated issue, which I think is one reason why it is not so hands-on to many people. It's not visceral. It's not like a starving child."

"You rack your brain. You take it personally in the beginning, you start blaming yourself. My career came before my family. My marriage was not great, and so you do hide yourself in your work. I should have focused more on my family. But that's hard to say when you're in the midst of your career, when you are in your own mind stepping out of your father's shadow, trying to create a life of your own."

"A work ethic. Courtesy to your fellow human beings. And kindness. Which are traits you have to work at and rehearse. Particularly compassion — I feel a certain responsibility to conduct myself as somebody who has been blessed and fortunate simply because I was born a white male. And also to teach them to be good citizens of the planet. I'm conscious of us all being in this together."

"It's difficult for me to meet women because my crowd is much older. I know that for some of the young women I do meet, a relationship with me can be envisioned as a benefit to their career."

"If your work isn't exciting, doesn't stir the emotions, where's the challenge? Where's the progress if you always play it safe?"

"I read the script, and I think, 'That's a good movie, and that's a really good movie, moves me, makes me laugh, this and that.' I don't worry about the part. Then I'm looking who's around me? Who's the director? Who's the cast? And I would much rather have a little part in a good movie than a big part in a crappy movie."

"People have this idea that I'm part of show business royalty. I cherish the relationship I had with my father, and I'd love to fulfill the fantasy. But when I was young, he was a working actor and hadn't quite made it yet."

"Do you know what absolute happiness is? For me, it is to wake up my kids in the morning - these little pieces of innocence - to wake them and find they're so happy to see me! It is unequivocal love, no question about it."

"Ricky Nelson may not have had the country roots of the others – his mother sang in the big band led by his father, and he rose to fame on their sitcom. But his hits like “Poor Little Fool,” “Lonesome Town” and “Hello Mary Lou” fit in perfectly with the country-infused rock and pop of the [time]. In the mid-‘60s, Nelson reinvented himself as a country singer and help usher in that era."

"I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends A chance to share old memories and play our songs again When I got to the garden party they all knew my name no one recognized me I didn't look the same But it's all right now I learned my lesson well You see ya can't please everyone So ya got to please yourself People came from miles around Everyone was there Yoko brought her walrus There was magic in the air N' over in the corner much to my surprise Mr Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise But it's all right now I learned my lesson well You see, ya can't please everyone So ya got to please yourself . . ."

"I had an aunt that used to say, “You keep using the same recipe, You’re gonna keep baking the same cake. “You’ve gotta change the ingredients if you want a different outcome.""

"When you’re not fed with a silver spoon you learn to lick it off a knife."

"Don’t listen to the people on the sidelines. Pay attention to the actual players."

"Don't mess with my Phil."

"We say that 'Black Lives Matter’ Well truthfully they really never have. No one ever really gave a fuck. Just read your bullshit history books. But honestly it ain't just black. It's yellow, it's brown, it's red. It's anyone who ain't got cash. Poor whites that they call trash."

"It's unfortunate that we even have to say 'Black Lives Matter', I mean, if you go through history nobody ever gave a fuck. I mean, you can kill black people in the street, nobody goes to jail, nobody goes to prison. But when I say 'Black Lives Matter' and you say 'All Lives Matter', that's like if I was to say 'Gay Lives Matter' and you say 'All Lives Matter'. If I said, 'Women's Lives Matter' and you say 'All Lives Matter', you're diluting what I'm saying. You're diluting the issue. The issue isn't about everybody. It's about black lives, at the moment But the truth of the matter is, they don't really give a fuck about anybody, if you break this shit all the way down to the low fucking dirty-ass truth."

"It's easy to make people think you’re a gangster. It’s hard to convince the feds you’re not."

"I’m definitely still wild at heart. But I’ve struck bio-gravity."

"If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women."

"Never rub another man's rhubarb."

"I have a greater appreciation for how change actually happens. If something could change with the flip of a switch, it would have been done before. By the same token, there's always going to be a bit of a disconnect. Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, if you're under 35, you're for marriage equality, you want to raise the debt ceiling, and you want better access to health care and entrepreneurship. But the average age in the senate is 62 or 63. Like most people who turn on the news, I think, OK, the members of congress are out of touch."

"“I said, ‘This going to perhaps sound cheesy, but two of the things I love the most are making people laugh and America,’…I like patriotism. There is an underlying theme of patriotism in all of the Harold and Kumar movies for example. I love that feeling because it’s very much my sense of humor, which is sort of aspirational as opposed to cynical."

"I mean no disrespect to any of our current climate at all, but I have been an actor for almost two decades now, and this is a dream come true to be able to create a network comedy that just makes people laugh…What I love about comedy is that, like music, sports and food, it brings us all together."

"Through that process, I was just working on the outreach team, but because of that I was meeting people who were undocumented, people whose families were impacted by it, and obviously huge advocacy organizations. That stuff stays with you. It was, of course, the basis for some of the characters and some of their stories and the lives that they live…"

"I'm a student of the movies. I'm a student of all media. This is what I do, and I like to immerse myself in what's current and what's topical. And I find that I'm drawn to those things."

"I like the fact that I'm involved in a career that gives me so many different mediums to perform in. The entertainment industry in the last 10 years has been so fragmented, from scripted programming to reality. There's work not just on TV and in film, but you know, on your cell phone, on the Internet. There's so many [venues] now, and each of them looking for quality content, that, you know, I'm just going with the flow. And I'm having fun with every wave."

"I helped Stephen with the story and then I auditioned for SpongeBob, I used my Plankton voice, which sounds like a mix of Tony the Tiger and Gregory Peck. It’s actually an imitation of a friend from high school that had a really deep voice."

"The Plankton character was only supposed to be in one or two episodes, but I was a writer on the show and I really liked this character. Stephen told me to come up with more ideas for Plankton. I’m not just his voice. I get to create how the character is written and how he evolves over time. You very rarely get that experience."

"It’s a quality show and I think it came along at the right time, America wanted something stupid after the insanity of 9/11. The SpongeBob character is a naïve idiot but he also has a heart. He’s a dumb, well-meaning person, like Forrest Gump or Jerry Lewis."

"People do what they do by choice, so I don’t really know it’s a matter of people being comfortable in front of the camera. I think it’s a matter of doing the work that’s available to you and then striving in it. If you realized how hard it is to get a job in the entertainment industry, and you were working prolifically in voice over and you can work doing on camera stuff here and there, it has nothing to do with being worried about how you look on camera. It’s about the work and you do the work that is available to you. These actors are that good that they’re able to do the voiceover stuff. It’s hard. A lot of people think that it’s easy to just go and talk in front of a microphone and that’s not the case. You’re not just talking, you’re acting. You’re acting in front of a microphone as opposed to a camera. It’s a lot more specific of a technique than most people think. It’s not, “Oh, do a silly voice!” Try doing a silly voice for four hours, then take a lunch break, and then do another silly voice for four hours. It’s not easy, especially because it’s about the acting. So I think that mindset is a little off."

"I like animals, all animals. I wouldn’t hurt a cat or a dog—or a chicken or a cow. And I wouldn’t ask someone else to hurt them for me. That’s why I’m a vegetarian."

"A lot of people who are in the movie business don't really know much about movies, and they certainly don't know movie history. You have to even find a code when you're talking to these people—you can't use the references that you would use when talking to somebody who knows movie history. When you go in to pitch something, it depends what you invoke. You can't invoke anything really before 1980 with these people because they don't know what you're talking about. It's limiting. They get annoyed. They get offended that you are somehow trying to expose the fact that they don't know things, and make them feel inadequate. Which is of course not the point, or why you do it."

"He keeps imitating himself, but he has much talent and I think in time he will do first rate comedy. I hope so. But he he's going to have to learn artistic discipline."