Taking on a role that has the potential to shock or change your image can be a huge risk in Hollywood – they’re putting their careers on the line and could lose other work if their risk doesn’t pay off, but sometimes the bigger the challenge, the greater the reward. These 5 actors/actresses believe that taking risks in your career is a must in order to push yourself and advance, while others admit that they’re afraid of pushing the boundaries too far and approach risk with caution. A risky role could be the ticket to an Oscar or it could lead to your downfall in the spotlight: it just depends on how you play it and how much of a challenge your up for. These 5 stars have all spoken on taking a risky part!
Adrien Brody
Adrien doesn’t want to stop pushing himself: “I feel very blessed and fortunate to have received that recognition early on. I think I have less to prove now. That being said, I constantly feel the need to challenge myself and find roles that have a certain degree of risk and which force me outside my comfort zone.”
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda recently took on her most risky role yet as Linda Lovelace and she says she loved the challenge: “It is risky and people did not stop reminding me of that. But I also really wanted a challenge. It appealed to me in that way,” she said. Lovelace is about Linda Lovelace, the star of the 1970s porn film Deep Throat in which Lovelace played a woman skilled in “a very advanced form of fellatio.”
Helen Mirren
Helen says that while she may have considered risky parts in the past, these days she likes more stable work: “I try not to be but, you know, as you get older you get more frightened. The realities of life start coming in on you and you realise that you do want security and so on and so forth. So you start working towards that and that’s when you start losing your idealism, which is sad.”
Kevin Bacon
Kevin says that he loves to take chances when it comes to selecting roles: “I like taking chances. I’m afraid of earthquakes, tsunamis, environmental catastrophe and war, but not difficult roles. I never think about, or even know, what my public persona is. I’d rather have the work speak for itself.”
Taylor Kitsch
Taylor says risks make his job more interesting: ”I want to keep working with the best, keep going and be a better actor each time I go and dive into something. I want to be scared. I want to keep taking insane risks. I want to be scared because you’re going to grow through that whether you want to or not. I don’t want to play the same guy. I want to keep throwing curveballs to you guys and keep telling stories.”
