Ben Mendelsohn Quotes

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Ben Mendelsohn

Profession : Actor

Birth : April 3, 1969

As an actor who has spent twenty years trying to crack America, the day I reached the 'Bloodline' set and found my name on a chair next to Sissy Spacek's was the happiest of my working life.

Ben Mendelsohn

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.

Ben Mendelsohn

I think it's that thing of growing up all the time watching American movies and listening to American music. It hits you in a way that's a lot purer because you are not in that culture that you're watching.

Ben Mendelsohn

'The Outlaw Josey Wales' is one I watched again and again and again in the early days of VHS.

Ben Mendelsohn

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

Ben Mendelsohn

I think some of my favorite Australian films were shot by people that are not Australian. And I think when Dean Semler did 'Dances with Wolves,' for instance, that's a very different-looking Western than what you've seen much of before. It's very rich, color-wise. But we've got our own very proud thing going on.

Ben Mendelsohn

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.

Ben Mendelsohn

In Australia, even the darkest subject matter has a little pinch of humor. A little sweet to make the sour go down.

Ben Mendelsohn

The way that actors talk about acting is generally quite punishing, and I think actors want to put forward the idea that they do all of this work because, you know, it's a post-De Niro world, when, largely, in fact, it's almost never true.

Ben Mendelsohn

Let me give you a little Mendelsohn 101: I came up in television in the early- to mid- 1980s in Australia.

Ben Mendelsohn

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

Ben Mendelsohn

I have an intensive relationship with the thing that I'm working on, and I hope that comes through. It's better for me to not worry about the things I can't fix once they're done.

Ben Mendelsohn

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

Ben Mendelsohn

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

Ben Mendelsohn

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

Ben Mendelsohn

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.

Ben Mendelsohn

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

Ben Mendelsohn

I think difficult characters are very rewarding to do. They often have facets to them and this and that.

Ben Mendelsohn