I think Bond the character is distinct: He's British he has a certain code that he lives by he's incorruptible... he's a classical hero but he's also fallible. He has inner demons inner conflicts and he's a romantic.

I don't feel like a romantic lead I guess I feel more like a character actor.

I tend to play strong characters and people just assume that I would want to play romantic comedies which I would love to do but there are other women that do it so great and they maybe couldn't do what I do play the kind of characters that I play.

The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing but it was a success.

I saw Tequila Sunrise as a romantic picture with complex bigger than life characters.

I confess I am a romantic. I love romance and I think it's really fun and delicious and some of my favorite films are love stories. I think that you just get a chance to fall in love with the characters so much and you get to explore their lives so deeply.

I had these kind of unrealistic expectations that were fueled by romantic comedies and it has both helped me and hurt me in many ways. It helped me because in general they've made me hopeful. I just figure things will eventually work out for me. But nobody is like any Tom Hanks character. Nobody is Hugh Grant. No one is Meg Ryan!

You know I always got offered other stuff. Not the romantic leads obviously. But very often it's a role that's underwritten where the character has no personality at all. And they need a character actor who can fill it in.

We are talking about someone who has lived. It must be honored in every respect. The fictional can take any kind of channel - according to the actor's marriage to the character.

There's immense fun to be had as long as you can sort of sneak it past DC. I have been told on occasion that I need to have more respect for these characters.

I have women coming up to me and saying: 'I love your character! She's so empowered. She takes control she gets what she wants.' That's another side of her. And I respect that in Joan. She says and does things that I would never allow myself to do.

I have too much respect for the characters I play to make them anything but as real as they can possibly be. I have a great deal of respect for all of them otherwise I wouldn't do them. And I don't want to screw them by not portraying them honestly.

I did private study for about a month five days a week six hours a day. I came to understand the character in ways that I never would've previous to that. I was so innocent in respect to ways of creating characters.

I want to establish a wide range and play all kinds of parts. It's that sort of acting career I really respect. I like to turn a sharp left from whatever I've done before because that keeps me awake. That's why I want to be an actor - I don't want to play endless variations on one character.

Among those who are satisfactory in this respect it is desirable to have represented as great a diversity of intellectual tradition social milieu and personal character as possible.

Picasso is a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected. He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Malaga and I was born four blocks from where he was born.

As a younger actor you want to be approved of you want to gain respect be admired. All of those things. To say: 'This is me playing this character. And aren't I fantastic!' I don't feel that so much now.