Sharlto Copley
Sharlto Copley
Sharlto Copleyis a South African actor, producer and director who has produced and co-directed short films that have appeared at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as commercials and music videos. He is perhaps best known for playing the roles of Wikus van der Merwe in the Oscar-nominated science fiction film District 9, Howling Mad Murdock in the 2010 adaptation of The A-Team, Agent C.M. Kruger in the science fiction film Elysium, James Corrigan in the science fiction horror film...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth27 November 1973
CityPretoria, South Africa
certainly clint designing draw guys life movies people prefer rather seen version works
I always find the more you can draw on real life characters, people, situations, it works better. Certainly for designing a character, I prefer to draw on real people rather than other guys I've seen in movies, rather than 'here's my version of Clint Eastwood' or whoever.
combining enjoy genres ways
To be honest, I'm probably more of a comedy person, actually. I really enjoy the comedy stuff, and I've got some things I'll be working on that I think are just different ways of combining genres in comedy and drama and action.
came carry felt maybe since supporting
I feel so comfortable in an acting role, you know, as an actor. Maybe it's because I came into it late. If anything, I've felt frustrated that I can't carry a film because everything since 'District 9' has been supporting roles.
characters
To some degree, Hollywood doesn't know what to do with me because the characters I do are so different. But hopefully, that will give me longevity.
handle heard looking minutes second ten walked
I walked out of... was it 'Stardust?' That thing with the witches? I was so looking forward to it, but I just couldn't handle it, man. Ten minutes in, and I was gone. I didn't have to walk out of 'Transformers 2' because I didn't go. I loved the first 'Transformers.' I loved it, but I heard too many of my friends walked out of the second one.
fact interview open people power quoted rip whatever
You need that marketing power. You need to go do the interviews. You need to put yourself out there and risk and be open to the fact that people are going to not like you, and they are just going to rip you apart, and whatever you say in an interview can get quoted out of context.
gets
I think every soft child in the world gets damaged. All of of us come into the world and get damaged. It's just a matter of how much.
people variations
In America, people really struggle with my name, so I don't have a nickname as such. I've had Sharlito, Sheldon, Charldo, really interesting variations on the name. Some of them can get it, but many can't.
bit favourite played stick
Interestingly enough, the game I played the most ever was Street Fighter II, back in the day. That would probably still stick as one of my favourite games. Just being a bit of an '80s guy.
characters darker drawn fond offered playing putting roles though
I'm not particularly fond of playing villains. I do want to be a working actor, and I've had to look at what was offered to me, what roles I could get, and what I could do with them. Even though I'm not drawn to putting those kinds of darker characters out there, I think it's an interesting challenge.
casting chance characters interested jump knows love produce projects trying
I'm not interested in going to casting after casting, trying to get into that game. So there is a part of me that knows that I will do more characters, even if I have to produce those projects myself to get those projects out there. If the right characters come along, I would love to. I would jump at the chance.
heart too-much villain
Because I'm a filmmaker at heart, I know a villain can't be too humanized and the audience can't empathize with him too much.
fun real play
Villains are not fun for me to play, as such. But caricature-ish, intense behaviors that are based on real human traits are interesting. That makes an interesting story.
powerful character watches
That's what a powerful story does. It creates a more intense experience of life for you to watch. That's what a good film does for me, anyway. That process, I enjoy. It just makes for entertaining characters and entertaining films.