39 Quotes by Colm Meaney

I do go back to Ireland, and I'll probably be doing a film in Ireland in January, and I guess that kind of keeps me classified as 'the Irish actor,' but the last four or five projects that I've been in are either American or English, so I don't feel terribly trapped in that. But sometimes, yeah, you would like to not be called 'the Irish actor.' You'd prefer to just be called 'the actor.'

The digital revolution has changed the way we do things because you’re not under that pressure that film is precious and film is expensive.

My old manager of the Irish National Theatre said ‘Don’t worry about being a star, just worry about being a working actor. Just keep working.’ I think that’s really good advice.

Even in drama, I like to try to find the humor because I think it’s very human. Even in the depths of dreadful situations, there’s usually something rather comic, or something you can laugh about afterwards, at least.

There are so many burning issues to be dealt with that it’s completely understandable and natural that a character is struggling with these issues themselves. In that struggle, you inform the audience. The thing about this writing is that it’s very easy to learn. Good writing always is.

Normally when I’m sent a script I’ll read it through to see how it hangs as a story and then I’ll go back and read it through again and look at the character.

A good comedy’s very hard to make, so good comic writing I really enjoy.

I suppose I look for humor in most situations because it humanizes things; it makes a character much more three-dimensional if there’s some kind of humor. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud type of stuff, just a sense that there is a humorous edge to things. I do like that.

I kind of have an interest in all history. And I suspect it comes from being Irish – we like stories, we like telling stories, which makes a lot of us lean towards being writers or actors or directors.