Top 90 John C. Reilly Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “An actor’s life is like a series of – it’s like the first day of school happening over and over again.”

— John C. Reilly

52. “I love card games, and I’ve always loved board games and stuff like that as a kid, and I think it’s that part of your brain that’s engaged in con movies. It’s like this ‘Who’s outsmarting whom?’”

— John C. Reilly

53. “One of the reasons people find me a believable actor is that I don’t seem like one of the gods from Olympus. I seem like someone who was lucky enough to be let into Olympus.”

— John C. Reilly

54. “Unless you do the same thing, it’s tough for stereotypes to stick. That said, whatever you’ve done that’s most popular at a given moment is what people think “you do.””

— John C. Reilly

55. “The thing I tried to remember when I was younger was ‘Do something that’s at least as good, if not better, than the last thing you did.’ So I started with Brian De Palma and Sean Penn. I had a pretty high bar to start with.”

— John C. Reilly

56. “I’m not of the manor born; I’ve never felt entitled in that way. I just came to Hollywood to be an actor. All that lifestyle stuff is something to be managed.”

— John C. Reilly

57. “I would say whisky or pills. Not both because that can have disastrous consequences.”

— John C. Reilly

58. “Despite not looking like a matinee idol, I feel like I have a lot to give. I’ve never had any trouble with women. People are always surprised with the romantic aspect of my movies.”

— John C. Reilly

59. “It’s true that the skills required to be a conman are the same as those required for being an actor. Though those skills are in the service of something a bit more noble with acting, I hope.”

— John C. Reilly

60. “If people want to see me in comedies, that’s fine with me.”

— John C. Reilly

61. “I love to improvise, but I always thought “Man, it’s like the final frontier for improvisational actors, to really go for something emotional, something that’s not just chasing the laugh.””

— John C. Reilly

62. “A lot of times, good improv is when both people, or however many people are in the scene, really have no idea what the next thing you’re going to say is.”

— John C. Reilly

63. “When they’re good, I like working with new actors.”

— John C. Reilly

64. “I feel like a teenager myself, so I appreciate it when the kids think you’re all right.”

— John C. Reilly

65. “I would love to do a western. I would love to play an explorer. That is always something that has really captured my imagination since I was a kid, like James Cook or Magellan or Earnest Shackleton.”

— John C. Reilly

66. “You were there all day long, 12 hours a day. So there was none of this, ‘I’m going back to my trailer, my trailer’s bigger than your trailer,’ that kind of Hollywood nonsense.”

— John C. Reilly

67. “I find people attractive for more subtle reasons than just the way they look.”

— John C. Reilly

68. “I was never a very dependable employee for anything. Perfect for the actor’s life!”

— John C. Reilly

69. “I give as much as I can, and it’s up to someone else to turn it into a movie. Good luck to you!”

— John C. Reilly

70. “I think just getting a movie done is an accomplishment in itself.”

— John C. Reilly

71. “If I’m committed to something really stupid, then I’m in a comedy.”

— John C. Reilly

72. “You know, the truth is that us actors would all like to believe we re-invent the wheel, every time we play a character. But, we’re human beings and our instruments are not violins, they are our bodies and our consciousness and our collective life experience.”

— John C. Reilly

73. “A lot of people that make films say, ‘We need this kind of character. Who’s done it before? Get them to do it again.’ That is exactly what actors are pushing against. It’s kind of a cliche to talk about being stereotyped in that way, but it happens.”

— John C. Reilly

74. “From the first time I did a movie, people have said, ‘Oh, it’s all going to change now.’ And it would change, but very incrementally. I think I prefer that to some big explosion of fame all of the sudden.”

— John C. Reilly

75. “A lot of times, mainstream critics are much tougher on small, independent movies because they can be.”

— John C. Reilly

76. “I know I’m not some matinee idol, but I think we’re sold this bill of goods by the media, which says that only the most beautiful and dashing people can become movie stars. So when someone like me sneaks in, they have to redo the calculations.”

— John C. Reilly

77. “Surprising people is the key to career longevity for someone like me.”

— John C. Reilly

78. “I like working with people I know. It saves a lot of awkward conversations and getting-to-know-you kinda moments. You trust the people if you know them.”

— John C. Reilly

79. “I hear actors complain about being stereotyped, and a lot of the time, you have yourself to blame. Just don’t take the part if you feel like it’s a stereotypical part for you. You have control over your life. We don’t have the old studio system, where you have to do what they tell you.”

— John C. Reilly

80. “I kinda taught myself how to play guitar, and I still play to this day. It’s become a pretty big part of my life.”

— John C. Reilly

81. “I’m much more character based. I try to just be really committed to what I’m doing.”

— John C. Reilly

82. “A script is like a theory of a movie.”

— John C. Reilly

83. “God forbid you got seasick because there was no option to go back. So that really did force us to be a group.”

— John C. Reilly

84. “I like being employed, you know. That’s my favorite kind of acting.”

— John C. Reilly

85. “I don’t mind doing scripted material. It’s actually kind of a relief, because improvising is a little bit like screenwriting on your feet.”

— John C. Reilly

86. “To me, it doesn’t make any sense to pick your work based on the size of the budget of the movie.”

— John C. Reilly

87. “For a long time, it was like I was part of some special forces unit: I’d land, meet everyone, five minutes later I’d have to do some amazing work, then – boom! – I’m out again. You know, playing supporting parts takes courage.”

— John C. Reilly

88. “Actually, acting turned out to be the perfect job for me, because I had a lot of different interests. I thought about being a priest at one point. I thought about being a teacher. I thought about being a lawyer. But I think acting is probably the best job for me.”

— John C. Reilly

89. “I like how pure the expression is in music. You can go straight to the heart of an audience rather than through their brain.”

— John C. Reilly

90. “I just like surprising people. I never want to get to a place where people see that I am in a movie and they go see the movie and they expect a certain performance one way or the other. That is just inherently boring to me.”

— John C. Reilly

91. “That’s one of the difficult things of being an actor that I’m still not used to. You have to go, you have to show up at these places where you know nobody, and sometimes with really impressive, high stakes people like Roman Polanski.”

— John C. Reilly