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I don't know how to be like a Bill Murray or a Will Ferrell, these guys who know how to make a line funny just by, I don't know, some extra-sense perception. I only know character and emotion and real acting that's all I know how to do.

John C. Reilly

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John C. Reilly
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: May 24
Actor
Character Actor
Film Actor
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Singer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Voice Actor
Chicago
Illinois
John Christopher Reilly
Acting
Bill
Funny
Bills
Sense
Perception
Character
Guys
Real
Line
Make
Emotion
Murray
Like
Lines
Extra
Guy
Extras

More quotes by John C. Reilly

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Just look around, in life, there's people who want to date people who look like themselves, and there are people who are just looking for a good fit. And a lot of times, a good fit is someone different than yourself. I'm not one to get too hung up on outside appearances. I find people attractive for more subtle reasons than just the way they look.
John C. Reilly
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I give as much as I can, and it's up to someone else to turn it into a movie. Good luck to you!
John C. Reilly
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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
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I love that people can't place me. They don't know my name. That's 'mission accomplished' in my world.
John C. Reilly
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Hey, I'm just trying to become the Michael Caine/Gene Hackman of my generation.
John C. Reilly
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I know I'm not some matinee idol, but I think we're sold this bill of goods by the media, which says that only the most beautiful and dashing people can become movie stars. So when someone like me sneaks in, they have to redo the calculations.
John C. Reilly
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Unless you do the same thing, it's tough for stereotypes to stick. That said, whatever you've done that's most popular at a given moment is what people think you do.
John C. Reilly
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Actually, acting turned out to be the perfect job for me, because I had a lot of different interests. I thought about being a priest at one point. I thought about being a teacher. I thought about being a lawyer. But I think acting is probably the best job for me.
John C. Reilly
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Why people pick me for the roles that they do is a bit of a mystery.
John C. Reilly
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I think that's some of the stuff that we kind of joke on in the movie, this obsession number one, winning is everything, number one, number one.
John C. Reilly
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I hear actors complain about being stereotyped, and a lot of the time, you have yourself to blame. Just don't take the part if you feel like it's a stereotypical part for you. You have control over your life. We don't have the old studio system, where you have to do what they tell you.
John C. Reilly
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The truth is that filmmaking is not really an actor's medium it's really a director's medium, so all I can really control is the character that I'm playing. So I try to look for characters that are interesting and engaging and different than what I've done before and hopefully it becomes a good movie.
John C. Reilly
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There is a level of fame that is really unmanageable. But most of the people who experience that level of fame are compensated in other ways. Private villas and chauffeured boats.
John C. Reilly
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It's thought of as an eccentric thing for an actor to really try to maintain quality control through the whole career. Most people think, 'You just work. You just keep working.' And in some ways I wish I could be a guy who's just a workhorse.
John C. Reilly
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When you're dealing with younger people, if you start acting like the leader or the expert or the elder statesman, 'well, let me tell you how this is...,' that's a great way to alienate young people and make them hate you.
John C. Reilly
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When they're good, I like working with new actors.
John C. Reilly
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People say, 'Don't you get tired of people coming up to you all the time?' But what's wrong with strangers saying they love you?
John C. Reilly
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The less people know about me in reality, the more they can accept of me as a character.
John C. Reilly
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I had [at school] my own little posse of people that all felt weird together so it wasn't so lonely.
John C. Reilly
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It's kind of liberating to be able to bring your own ideas to things, but it's also a lot of pressure, it's like screenwriting on your feet.
John C. Reilly