Sometimes a character is really based on research that you do. Other times it's just based on your imagination or perhaps your conversation with the director. Or sometimes all of the above. It depends on the movie and character.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative Imagination Individuality and Independence.

Well I'm not a method actress by any stretch of the imagination so the best thing that I can do is be as real as possible and find whatever commonality in that character that I can see myself.

If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity and even the good in him is hardly accepted.

It's a slight stretch of the imagination but most people are alike in most ways so I've never had any trouble identifying with the character that I'm playing.

I think what's really the most ideal thing is for the player themselves within their own imagination to carve out what they view as being the essence of the character.

Wit is the appearance the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity and the witty character of mysticism.

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.

Imagine for yourself a character a model personality whose example you determine to follow in private as well as in public.

I think films about men are often about characters who don't want to express their feelings. You're supposed to kind of admire them for not expressing their feelings. And I feel that's a bit dull. Women's stories often have stronger emotional content which I enjoy doing. What I really love doing is mixing that with humor.

Once we got over the origin story we could really delve deeper into their lives and characters and angst. So this movie actually has more heart more humor.

M*A*S*H offered real characters and everybody identified with them because they had such soul. The humor was intelligent and it always assumed that you had an intellect.

Good humor isn't a trait of character it is an art which requires practice.

But it was this tough little character part that I was playing a very funny little guy that I invented over a weekend because I realized I was not contributing to the humor of this thing. And I had to do something.

But because it was able to balance that kind of humor with a sweet story and characters you really rooted for and also got across the girls' point of view I've heard nothing but great things from younger and older females as well.

All I try to do is as earnestly and as acutely as I can conceive a character and try to portray this character just honestly. If the humor is within the absurdity and the awfulness of situations then let it be seen that way.

Back in 2004 Kellie Overbey handed me her play 'Girl Talk' to read. I fell in love with her brutally delicious humor and the fearlessly deft way in which she drew her characters. They jumped off the page and begged me to give them a space in which to stomp around.

I genuinely liked all of the cast members very much. Steve had a wicked sense of humor. I remember Russell coming to my rescue once. I watched Eric evolve before everyone's eyes. Maurice loved what he did so. He treated his character with respect down to the costuming.

I suppose I look for humor in most situations because it humanizes things it makes a character much more three-dimensional if there's some kind of humor. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud type of stuff just a sense that there is a humorous edge to things. I do like that.

With actors like Steve McQueen Paul Newman and Harrison Ford what made them such icons is that even in dramatic movies their characters had a sense of humor.

One of my favorite things about 'Star Trek' wasn't just the overt banter but the humor in that show about the relationships between the main characters and their reactions to the situations they would face there was a lot of comedy in that show without ever breaking its reality.

It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.

Feature-length film comedy is harder to pull off than the episodic sitcom - it doesn't have the same factory machinery up and running teams of writers putting familiar characters through permutations - but that doesn't explain the widening quality gap that makes movie humor look like a genetic defective.

There are certain things I learned when I first started learning about acting to try and place the character physically and emotionally. And the way you place them emotionally is often with humor.