There are a lot of actors in the world, there’s a small number that actually get to work as actors, and there is a tiny group of actors that are celebrated in the way that I have been. I feel incredibly lucky. – John C. Reilly
Here’s the thing, with comedy – and I learned this from Will Ferrell – you can’t be ashamed. If you’re doing comedy, you have to fully commit to the joke. Shame is not part of it. If you act shy or uncomfortable about your body, that makes the audience shy and uncomfortable. And in a comedy you just want them to loosen up and laugh. – John C. Reilly
From the first time I did a movie, people have said, ‘Oh, it’s all going to change now.’ And it would change, but very incrementally. I think I prefer that to some big explosion of fame all of the sudden. – John C. Reilly
Despite not looking like a matinee idol, I feel like I have a lot to give. I’ve never had any trouble with women. People are always surprised with the romantic aspect of my movies. – John C. Reilly
I love card games, and I’ve always loved board games and stuff like that as a kid, and I think it’s that part of your brain that’s engaged in con movies. It’s like this ‘Who’s outsmarting whom?’ – John C. Reilly
I swear and it comes off a little angry, no matter how funny I’m trying to do it. If I use certain words with a certain intensity, it’s like ‘Whoa whoa whoa, buddy buddy!’ – John C. Reilly
I don’t really get off on the anonymous love of strangers, which I think a lot of actors do. They’re lacking something in their own personal lives, so they want the adoration of autographs and all that stuff. – John C. Reilly
When I first joined SAG, there was another John Reilly. My dad was John Reilly, too, but growing up I was John John. Nobody in life calls me John C. It’s more like, ‘Hey you, Step Brother!’ – John C. Reilly
I kinda taught myself how to play guitar, and I still play to this day. It’s become a pretty big part of my life. – John C. Reilly
This whole celebrity racket, it’s not really my bag. I don’t really do that stuff, and I am not looking to get famous myself. I would love it if my characters get famous, my work was well known and appreciated. But I’m an actor, not a spokes model or a celebrity or whatever that is. I don’t know how to be that. – John C. Reilly
I don’t know how to be like a Bill Murray or a Will Ferrell, these guys who know how to make a line funny just by, I don’t know, some extra-sense perception. I only know character and emotion and real acting; that’s all I know how to do. – John C. Reilly
People say, ‘Don’t you get tired of people coming up to you all the time?’ But what’s wrong with strangers saying they love you? – John C. Reilly
Kind of the exhausting thing about doing pure comedy, or something that’s broader, is you’re kind of a slave to the laugh. If it’s not funny, then there’s not much point in doing it. The kind of ueber-objective is to make people laugh. You always have to have that in the back of your mind, ‘Eh, I’ve got to figure out a way to make this funny.’ – John C. Reilly
An actor’s life is like a series of – it’s like the first day of school happening over and over again. – John C. Reilly
Being a father has fulfilled me in parts of my life that sustain me. It gives me a comfort and patience. All actors have this hole inside that they’re trying to fill by performing. I’m anxious to keep creating, but I’m not so desperate any more because I have the love and support of my kids and wife. – John C. Reilly
I would love to do a western. I would love to play an explorer. That is always something that has really captured my imagination since I was a kid, like James Cook or Magellan or Earnest Shackleton. – John C. Reilly
You know, the truth is that us actors would all like to believe we re-invent the wheel, every time we play a character. But, we’re human beings and our instruments are not violins, they are our bodies and our consciousness and our collective life experience. – John C. Reilly
