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I just like surprising people. I never want to get to a place where people see that I am in a movie and they go see the movie and they expect a certain performance one way or the other. That is just inherently boring to me.

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
Place
Certain
Inherently
Way
Surprising
Never
Performance
Like
Performances
People
Boring
Expect
Movie

More quotes by John C. Reilly

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I'm a big fan of not letting the audience of off the hook, as they say. I like it when things feel real, and that's oftentimes not comfortable.
John C. Reilly
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I swear and it comes off a little angry, no matter how funny I'm trying to do it. If I use certain words with a certain intensity, it's like 'Whoa whoa whoa, buddy buddy!'
John C. Reilly
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One of the unique things is that whether we were out at sea or in the middle of the water tank, a lot of times you just couldn't leave. Especially when we were out at sea.
John C. Reilly
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I did a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his skill level was eons ahead of mine. It was really more like an abattoir - he just slaughtered my character over and over again.
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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Hollywood is an illusion. These intense workplaces, with very close relationships, a few months at a time - and then it ends.
John C. Reilly
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I'm dating myself by saying this, but I was the test audience for 'Space Invaders.' I remember when that was the first game that wasn't a pinball game. I spent a lot of money on 'Space Invaders,' in the form of quarters, of course.
John C. Reilly
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I'm not of the manor born I've never felt entitled in that way. I just came to Hollywood to be an actor. All that lifestyle stuff is something to be managed.
John C. Reilly
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You know, the truth is that us actors would all like to believe we re-invent the wheel, every time we play a character. But, we're human beings and our instruments are not violins, they are our bodies and our consciousness and our collective life experience.
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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I always felt really guilty if I spent too much time playing video games. It's a colossal waste of time. And I can't say it's a very satisfying feeling at the end of the day, if you've spent eight hours playing a video game you just end up feeling kind of spent, and used.
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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An actor's life is like a series of - it's like the first day of school happening over and over again.
John C. Reilly
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God forbid you got seasick because there was no option to go back. So that really did force us to be a group.
John C. Reilly
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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
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I was a solid C student because I was doing so many plays. I was a drama nerd, but I was also kind of a Zelig-like character I would shift between different groups of people. But the people I spent most of my time with were either chorus or swing choir or the drama nerds.
John C. Reilly
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Somehow that doesn't feel like a natural human thing to do, to go to those dark places, you have to kind of force yourself to do that. And comedy, it's like you're excited to get there in the morning every day.
John C. Reilly
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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
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A lot of times, mainstream critics are much tougher on small, independent movies because they can be.
John C. Reilly
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I went to an all-boys Catholic school, and not only were we not allowed to wear pajamas, we had to wear dress shirts, dress pants, a tie, dress shoes... they stopped making us wear blazers, like, two years before I started there, so pajamas... you wouldn't even get in the front door wearing pajamas at my school.
John C. Reilly