Home / Authors / Toby Jones

Toby Jones

Toby Jones Quotes

Actor

Toby Jones is a versatile British actor born on September 7, 1966. He has made a name for himself in film, television, and theater with his exceptional acting skills and diverse roles.

Filter quotes by topic

All Hitchcock People Actors Character Thinking Different Feels Voice Film Happens

Famous Toby Jones Quotes

“There is this miraculous thing I heard Hugh Grant talking about - the thing about screen acting is that you can read people's thoughts. You are trying to register something inside and usually the eyes in cinema are where you will register that.”

People Trying Eye Acting Talking Heard Screens Cinema Grants Miraculous Register

Author:Toby Jones

“There are things that I would avoid, so I have the choice to say no, when I feel I'm repeating myself too much. But then there could be a reason to do that with a good director. So I think actors have to have a loose philosophy.”

Thinking Feels Reason Philosophy Choices Actors Too Much Directors Good Directors

Author:Toby Jones

“One key element to Hitchcock is the drooping jowl. That was crucial because his silhouette is crucial. There is something about his silhouette that became his brand.”

Keys Elements Brands Crucial Hitchcock Silhouettes

Author:Toby Jones

“There's something in the rhythm and roll of it that is connected to the way Hitchcock thinks and moves. Then there is everything he ingested - the cigar smoking and drinking that's imprinted on his voice.”

Thinking Way Moving Voice Drinking Connected Rhythm Smoking Cigar Hitchcock Smoking And Drinking

Author:Toby Jones

“I was a fan of Hitchcock, but more importantly than that, he is such an inscrutable man, and a very carefully inscrutable man. He apparently was blank-faced with a calm and controlled presence. I was immediately anxious and thought, 'How am I going to get behind that?'”

Men Behinds Fans Calm Controlled Anxious Blank Hitchcock Inscrutable

Author:Toby Jones

“I went to meet Joe Johnston, the director, and he's charming. I've been very lucky. Most of the directors I've worked with are charming. But Joe's a particularly charming man, and he showed me lots of designs and, rather memorably, welcomed me to the Marvel Universe.”

Men Universe Design Lucky Directors Charming Charming Man

Author:Toby Jones

“I've got to tell you, I've played real characters before and people always bring up this word 'impersonation,' and I'm never entirely sure what it means.”

People Mean Real Character Real Character

Author:Toby Jones

“The script for 'Infamous' was so poised between tragedy and comedy. It's a dream part. One reads those scripts with a sense of melancholia. When you read a script that good I remember thinking, 'Oh, this script is too good. They'll never give it to me.'”

Thinking Giving Dream Remember Comedy Tragedy Scripts Infamous Tragedy And Comedy

Author:Toby Jones

“I think it will be, as always, interesting to compare different portrayals of Hitchcock. I'm very honored that I'm playing the same part as Anthony Hopkins.”

Thinking Different Interesting Compare Honored Hitchcock Hopkins Portrayal

Author:Toby Jones

“The prosthetics were interesting because the artist was so good that they could just put a Hitchcock mask on me, but you don't want to do that. You're an actor playing Hitchcock, so it's about how much of that you're going to do.”

Want Artist Actors Interesting Mask Hitchcock Prosthetics

Author:Toby Jones

“It's hard to imagine anyone interested in film not being a fan of Alfred Hitchcock because he's such a key influence on the entire history of cinema - it's hard to escape his shadow.”

Hard Film Imagine Fans Influence Keys Shadow Cinema Hitchcock

Author:Toby Jones

“They seem much rarer now, those auteur films that come out of a director's imagination and are elliptical and hermetic. All those films that got me into independent cinema when I was watching it seem thin on the ground.”

Seems Film Imagination Directors Independent Cinema Auteurs

Author:Toby Jones

“When I told people I was going to be doing the movie and the voice of Dobby, they were kind of awestruck, the people who knew about Harry Potter. I felt rather guilty that I didn't really understand the scale of the job I was about to take on. Now, I am well aware of what I'm doing, and actually, it feels a very serious acting responsibility.”

People Feels Wells Kind Jobs Felt Voice Acting Responsibility Serious Scales Guilty Harry Potter Old People Potters Awestruck Dobby

Author:Toby Jones

“The thing about Hitchcock which is quite extraordinary for a director of that time, he had a very strong sense of his own image and publicizing himself. Just a very strong sense of himself as the character of Hitchcock.”

Character Strong Directors Extraordinary Very Strong Hitchcock

Author:Toby Jones

“You're playing a character in a drama who happens to be based on someone who existed. It's never going to 'be' that person, but it's based on someone well-known, and you want to create enough of that person for it not to be a distraction.”

Want Wells Persons Enough Character Happens Known Drama Distraction Well Known

Author:Toby Jones

“There's not a huge pile of scripts at home. It's what happens to be on the table at that moment with your availability. And then you have no control over when these things come out.”

Moments Home Happens Huge Tables Scripts That Moment Availability

Author:Toby Jones

“I still don't feel I know Hitchcock at all. I find that the more one looks, the more elusive he becomes. But my admiration for Hitchcock the filmmaker remains undiminished. He is a giant of the cinema and the darkness in him informs his cinematic language. You can't separate one from the other.”

Knows Feels Looks Stills Language Darkness Remains Cinema Filmmaker Giants Admiration Elusive Cinematic Hitchcock

Author:Toby Jones

“There are far more good actors than there are jobs for them, so it's a big question of luck.”

Bigs Jobs Actors Luck Good Actors Big Questions

Author:Toby Jones

“I'm very fortunate that I get asked to do very different kinds of roles and I realize how much I enjoy that. I enjoy the challenge of transformation. There are actors who play one character, or a certain kind of character, the whole of their lives. I really relish the opportunity to have the challenge to totally transform.”

Kind Different Play Whole Character Certain Actors Opportunity Enjoy Realizing Challenges Roles Transformation Fortunate Different Kinds Relish

Author:Toby Jones

“I know, for a fact, that I'm a very different person on my own than I am with someone else. We are different with each other. These things are constantly adjusted. And that's true of humans. That's not just true of famous people.”

People Knows Humans Persons Different My Own

Author:Toby Jones

“We're interested by public personas and private personas, otherwise we wouldn't put on with actors rambling on with the same kind of stuff, over and over again, saying variations of the same thing. I'm always amazed by how fascinated people still are by actors because it's the same version of events that actors describe, all the time.”

People Kind Stills Actors Stuff Events Versions Fascinated Amazed Variation Persona Rambling

Author:Toby Jones

“They know you're not Alfred Hitchcock, but you need to be enough Alfred Hitchcock for them not to be bothered by it. That's a reassuring thing.”

Knows Needs Enough Bothered Reassuring Hitchcock

Author:Toby Jones

“You always get told how important the premiere and doing the press is, but I have suspicions.”

Important Presses Suspicion Premieres

Author:Toby Jones

“When working abroad you work pretty hard, but with time off, this is the greatest job in the world. You drive. You explore Memphis, or wherever you've landed, or go and see Dr John, or the Californian landscape. And, yes, I've had a few good meals.”

World Hard Jobs Landscape Meals Drs Time Off Memphis Good Meals Californians

Author:Toby Jones

“I'd love most of the movies I make to be four hours long.”

Long Hours Four

Author:Toby Jones

“I'm very interested in people, so if a character happens to be real, there's that much more to look at.”

People Ifs Looks Real Character Happens Being Real

Author:Toby Jones

“When you're training as an actor, a lot of the big work you're learning is to treat fictional characters like real people. You don't have the problem of discovering a backstory with real people, but there's always a mystery which is common to both fictional and factual characters. They are never quite the person you think they are.”

People Thinking Persons Real Character Problem Bigs Actors Common Mystery Training Treats Discovering Never Quit Factual Fictional Character

Author:Toby Jones

“What happens is some of the characters I've played have voices that are so different from my own, that it would be ridiculous if I would dip in and out of that voice in between takes to ask for a coffee, or something. Or to gossip about whatever was going on.”

Ifs Different Character Happens Would Be Asks Voice My Own Coffee Ridiculous Gossip Dip

Author:Toby Jones

“Particularly [Alfred] Hitchcock, who takes his time with everything he says. There's a controlling way in how he speaks because he takes his time to finish all his sentences.”

Way Speak Sentences Hitchcock

Author:Toby Jones

“Somewhere the glamour has gone because of the industrialization of this whole process. I wish it [filming] felt as magical and glamorous as people want it to be, but it feels like a routine people are going through.”

People Want Feels Whole Wish Felt Process Gone Routine Glamour Glamorous Industrialization

Author:Toby Jones

“I love making movies, I love trying to make them as good as I can, but I feel like sometimes the marketing and publicity around the movie, becomes the most important part of it.”

Feels Trying I Can Important Sometimes Marketing Publicity Love Making

Author:Toby Jones

“We're blessed with, as we were on 'Harry Potter,' lead actors who are amazingly grounded people.”

People Actors Blessed Harry Potter Grounded Potters

Author:Toby Jones

“Jennifer [Lawrence] is amazingly grounded in the midst of all this to do. It must be unnerving and hard to relate to the amount of attention she generates.”

Hard Attention Amount Relate Midst Grounded Jennifer

Author:Toby Jones

“Jennifer [Lawrence] and Josh [Hutcherson] seem very, very grounded. They're getting down to the film like they did last time.”

Seems Lasts Film Last Time Grounded Jennifer Josh

Author:Toby Jones

“You come in as this satellite part of the film [Catching Fire], so I only see Stanley [Tucci] in my scenes. These kinds of movies have so many different components; it's about as different from doing The Girl as you could imagine.”

Kind Different Film Girl Fire Imagine Scene Components Catching Satellites Stanley Catching Fire

Author:Toby Jones

“You can't deny reality just because you can't explain it.”

Reality Truth Deny

Author:Toby Jones

“All of these red carpet events may seem natural for you journalists, but it doesn't feel natural for actors.”

Feels May Seems Actors Natural Events Red Journalist Carpet Red Carpet

Author:Toby Jones

“I didn't sound anything like Capote at the screen test. It was more like Bob Dylan. In his early years. With the flu.”

Years Sound Tests Screens Bob Dylan Flu

Author:Toby Jones

“I do always feel very proud and flattered by being asked to be a part of American productions playing American characters.”

Feels Character Proud Productions Flattered American Character

Author:Toby Jones

“I get plenty of time to re-engage with the world I'm trying to depict, so I'm not always living in these parallel worlds.”

World Trying Plenty Parallels

Author:Toby Jones

“I had to change the shape of my own voice. It was quite hard to pull off and so once I had it, I stayed in Hitchcock's voice all day on set.”

Hard Voice My Own Shapes Hitchcock

Author:Toby Jones

“I teach for the Book Trust, which promotes reading and writing with children.”

Writing Children Book Reading Teach Reading And Writing

Author:Toby Jones

“I work best when a little scared, when there's so much more than the lines to think about.”

Thinking Littles Lines Scared

Author:Toby Jones

“I would absolutely like to play more leading roles. There’s no philosophy - well, the only philosophy, I suppose, is to try and do different things.”

Trying Wells Different Philosophy Play Roles Different Things

Author:Toby Jones

“If you ever have the good fortune to meet Tippi Hedren, she's an amazing woman. You can't quite believe she is the age she is.”

Ifs Believe Age Fortune Good Fortune Amazing Woman

Author:Toby Jones

“It's always very strange to have your life dramatized because it never happens like that. Things will be different.”

Different Happens Strange

Author:Toby Jones

“It's hard for it to make a mark in this city because London has so much culture to offer.”

Hard Culture Cities Offers Mark London

Author:Toby Jones

“Often jobs are un-turndownable even before you read the script. You go, "Well, I have to do that."”

Wells Jobs Scripts

Author:Toby Jones

“Best ever was filming in Barcelona last year, and I had a couple of scenes with De Niro. He's a very shy man. Speaks so quietly that people tend to bend down and adopt the same tone, almost the same voice, whenever they talk to him - watching, you'd think someone's offering to carry out a hit for him when they're just offering him a cup of coffee.”

People Thinking Men Years Lasts Speak Voice Couple Scene Down And Coffee Cups Tone Shy Offering Last Year Coffee Cup Barcelona De Niro Best Ever

Author:Toby Jones

“But I think the children of actors share a certain pragmatic approach. One is denied some of that 'running away with the circus' element of being an actor.”

Thinking Children Running Certain Actors Share Elements Approach Denied Running Away Circus Pragmatic

Author:Toby Jones

About the Author

Born: September 7, 1966
Known for: Actor
Quotes: 55

Related Topics

Hitchcock People Actors Character Thinking Different Feels Voice Film Happens

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Similar Authors

TellerBrowse related quotes
Tippi HedrenBrowse related quotes
Stephen GillersBrowse related quotes
Daniel RadcliffeBrowse related quotes
Kristen StewartBrowse related quotes
Meryl StreepBrowse related quotes
John HurtBrowse related quotes
Nicolas CageBrowse related quotes
Jack NicholsonBrowse related quotes
Christian BaleBrowse related quotes