Brian Cox went on from being a leading actor on the London Stage to a supporting actor in Hollywood and he did it with a big smile on his face.
Brian says, in a way, every actor’s a character actor and he wanted the experience of doing the work.
When he first went to the states he knew that he was going to earn his wage as a character actor and what he really wanted to do was create characters similar to those that he loved from the old films of the 30’s and 40’s.
These days, the supporting parts are often very flat. They’re flotsam and jetsam. But in the old movies, the characters just zing at you, no matter how small the part. They have totality about them. So that was important to him, to give the characters an arc, some definition.
He didn’t want to be a Hollywood leading man – he wanted to be a character actor. He wanted to create those parts in the film where the character itself might be quite bland, but the actor makes it impactful. Like in his performance as Lecktor in ‘Manhunter’ where the character is only on screen for a short time but makes a huge impact.
Brian believes that it removes ego from the equation and allows you to disregard the size of the role and concentrate solely on what you are able to contribute to your character and what your character can contribute to the film.
His idea was to just continue acting and be in a position where he could just keep moving and not reach an impediment like some of the Hollywood stars reach. So, being a character actor, a perennial support, allows you turn up, do the job, take the money, which is slightly less than what the leads get but still worth having, and then you clock off. And you always, but always, live to fight another day.
Most supporting actors should see this as an advantage to their role.
This showed him that there was no greater or higher ambition than simply being a good actor. Not to worry about a career and worry about the craft instead. To work on what talent he had and try to make it a better, greater talent. And be better at his job.
Actor, Character, text. That’s all it is.