Michael Eklund Quotations

Making a movie takes a toll on your life because it's a commitment, so you put a lot on the back burner.

I don't follow anything that's said about him much, but the Uwe Boll that I know is just a really cool guy. He's just a really quiet, kind and passionate filmmaker who really believes in what he's doing. Like any director that an actor wants to work with, you want a director who's passionate and believes in the work that he's doing.

I think every actor has their list of roles that were near misses. I've had my share.

Xavier Gens is probably the busiest filmmaker that I know.

Every thriller needs a good bad guy; without a bad guy, there's no thriller.

Actors sure have stories. We always have stories. At the end of our careers, all we have to take with us is our stories, and we have many of them.

I've had a couple of people come up to me after screenings and say they kind of sympathized with the character. I always get a kick out of it when people say that. It means I did something maybe a little bit to the credit of the character.

It's what I've always wanted to do and each part you play gets you closer and closer to the roles that you dreamed of playing.

The thing is, I never see my characters as psychopaths. I see them as really crippled victims who just happen to do bad things. And I never see them as bad guys; I see them as darker characters. I never see anything as good or bad; it's more light or dark, and the in-between is the grey.

I do like playing the darker side of life but as much as the lighter side as well. They all resonate out of the same place, which is that everyone has a story to tell. Depending on their upbringing and their history, it determines who they are as an adult. My job is to take the role from there.

With the type of actor I am, which includes really diving into a role and making it as real as possible, there's nothing better than working in a real environment on location. It forces you to feel what the character's feeling, and it allows you to live in the space of the character.

That's what acting is all about - it's all about bringing truth from your own life, and putting it into your characters. If you have the advantage of using your own life in your work, that's always the way to go.

I've played characters who are dark and have done things I never have experienced, which is why I try to find the reasons why they do what they do. We're all people, and go through similar emotions.

With the way I like to work, I always have to draw [inspiration] from somewhere, and the best place to take from is your own life.

With a film, you know the beginning, middle and end of your character's arc. But on a TV show, you have no idea where they're going to end up.

Whether it's a lower or higher budget project, a TV show or a film, the words on the page are the same to me and I approach the work in the same way. My job is to lift the character from the page, whether it's a TV or film script.

If I have to wear a hat as a producer to do that, then I'm willing to do that. An actor's, producer's and director's point-of-view is all the same to me, as long as the story's being told.

I think it's very important for any actor to eventually produce, and create the projects they want to create. I believe it's all a part of the same art form, which is storytelling.