$3,000 from a residual cheque was all I made one year.

- Ben Mendelsohn

You feel an affinity with younger actors, because, you know, it's a very insecure job. And it can be a long time before you feel like, you know, things might be all right.

- Ben Mendelsohn

For me it's a compliment, playing baddie characters. I take it as a compliment.

- Ben Mendelsohn

Fifteen years old, out in the world, acting was all I had.

- Ben Mendelsohn

Fassbender is fearless; he's a fearless actor.

- Ben Mendelsohn

Before 'Animal Kingdom,' I wasn't particularly thought of in villainous roles.

- Ben Mendelsohn

At any period of an actor's life, it's fairly likely that they'll be cast in ways that are reminiscent. That's the way it goes.

- Ben Mendelsohn

'Animal Kingdom' is a significant comet, and it's cast a tail. It's very hard to see anything post that happening without that.

- Ben Mendelsohn

'Animal Kingdom' is a lot of things, but it's not heartwarming.

- Ben Mendelsohn

Acting is a bit of a heart and soul exercise with me. It's kind of all I've got.

- Ben Mendelsohn

Accents are always difficult in their way, but as long as you're not throwing an audience off with it, then that's all it should be.

- Ben Mendelsohn

I don't believe in the transformation myth, where if you have more success, life changes for you.

- Ben Mendelsohn

The people I've encountered who are really dangerous in my life don't go around with their fangs drawn - they are dangerous because of the way they interpret what's going on.

- Ben Mendelsohn

One of the things that I found very confronting in my early working life was that people thought I was some sensitive doe-eyed lovelorn boy, because they'd seen me do that a couple of times. What tends to happen is you get a run of similar roles.

- Ben Mendelsohn

At 15 I had moved out of my parents' place, and my options were looking pretty narrow. But I had this acting thing and I just wanted to be able to keep going because it was really good. That was all I wanted.

- Ben Mendelsohn

You can certainly extend your adolescence. There's people that are very good at extending it indefinitely.

- Ben Mendelsohn

I've spent various periods of my career being thought of as various things, various degrees of substance and ideas.

- Ben Mendelsohn

As an outsider in America, you do see the kind of hypocrisy that's rampant there.

- Ben Mendelsohn

There's very little different between the way the government operates in America and the way criminals do.

- Ben Mendelsohn

The people that impress me are Bob Dylan. The ones who keep working, year in and year out, and keep coming up with stuff.

- Ben Mendelsohn