64 Quotes by Dennis Haysbert

The fact that I'm an African-American man as a lead, it really doesn't surprise me at all because I've never seen myself as a victim or any of those things. I just thought that when I wasn't a lead before, it was just shortsighted.

There is definitely a certain cadence to David's work. You'll see his fingerprints all over the scripts. It really makes for entertaining dialogue. They were really fun to say.

There is definitely a certain cadence to David's work. And as you see more of the episodes, you'll see that his fingerprints are all over scripts and it really makes for entertaining dialogue, and they were awfully fun to say.

All of the directors I work with have their own unique gifts. My particular segment deals with online dating. It's a very interesting take on it, and a great observation of what goes on there.

I knew that they were going to be reading actors for Manute, and I wanted to give it a shot. I wanted a shot to do it, and they embraced that and said, "All right, come on in. Let's see what you've got." So, I went in, and the rest is history. It felt good when I went into the office, and it just worked.

I definitely wanted to pay homage to what he did and use his performance in the first one as a foundation. But, I had to make it my own. I couldn't sit there and try to imitate Michael Clarke Duncan. I think that would have been disastrous. I had to make it my own. I tried to take as many nuances that he had with the character and utilize them as best I could, while creating a character that was unique to me. That's going to happen, no matter what.

No matter what you set out to do and how you set out to do it, you ultimately have to be who you are, and who you are as that character. So, I paid as much homage as I could to what Michael Clarke did, and had to rely on my own gifts to guide me through it.

There's part of it when Manute has both eyes. And the character was actually fleshed out a lot more, in this movie. I got to show people who Manute is and why he is and how devout he is. He is Ava's protector and punisher.

I took to it very quickly. I'm very imaginative anyway, and it just set off that part of my brain. It made me focus in on the actors a lot more. I didn't have the distraction of looking at my surroundings.