Dermot Mulroney Quotations

I wish I could say I had some sort of master plan where one role leads to the next role, but a lot of it really is persistence and luck and being prepared when you are asked to jump on a project. There isn't any one rule that I follow. Obviously, I'll always shoot to work with the best actors, directors and filmmakers. I've been incredibly lucky to be able to do that.

I wouldn't do anything else [besides acting], for sure. If I did, it would be music or some other pursuit in this same area. I have been acting and playing music since childhood. It's what I enjoyed most.

After my father had seen me in five or six things, he said, Son, your mother and I really enjoyed your recent film, and I must say that you're a lot like John Wayne. And I said, How so? And he said, Well, you're exactly the same in all your roles. Now, as a modern American actor, that's not what you want to hear. But for a guy who watched John Wayne movies and grew up in Iowa, it's a sterling compliment.

Every time I've made a plan in my Hollywood acting career, something else has happened, so I've gotten out of the habit of trying to predict the future.

What people actually refer to as research is really just Googling. I already have a complicated relationship with research. It used to be going to the library and looking up archival photos, etc.

Even through my college years, I was trying out plays and shows, but I never really thought it made much sense to try to be an actor. I thought it was foolish, really.

I was a film student. I became an actor, but I thought I'd be pursuing filmmaking originally.

Growing up, Paul Newman seemed like the ultimate manly actor. And then, I got to work with him and we became friends, so that was nice.

What's fascinating about acting is that you put yourself in somebody else's mind or in their shoes.

I don't need to prove that I'm some great international filmmaker. It's not really on my list of goals.