Christopher Walken (Actor)

"Actors are priests. They are a consuit from something very powerful to the people. That's why when you got to the theater or to the movies you are moved in some way, to laugh, to get a hard-on, to feel compassion. Good acting has a lot to do with the way you were when you were eight years old, you play. It usually has to do with having a good time. Most good actors are very playful." - Walken quoted in Movieline, November 1998

"I found [Lee Strasberg] rather severe. He had humor, but you rarely saw it. Elia Kazan was the best acting teacher I ever saw. He says such simple things. At the Actors Studio there were these people who'd [act like] some kind of Delphic mysteries were being imparted. Such seriousness. I said to somebody once, 'Please, I'm getting a headache.' She said to me, 'You just don't understand.' I haven't been there in 10 years for that reason." - Walken quoted in Movieline, November 1998

"I know I look strange, and strangeness equates into villainy through the camera. It's hard for me to play the guy next door. But it's an advantage too. because other actors don't have it." - Walken quoted in Parade magazine, Sep. 21, 1997

"I make a lot of movies. I make four, um, five, six movies a year. I do it because I really like to work. I really don't have anything else to do. Some of them go straight to video. They're so obscure. I make movies nobody will see. I've made a number if movies that I have never seen." - Walken quoted in Empire, December 1997

"I've been in show business since I was 3 years old, there're very, very few people around who can say that. [laughs] You can't have been in show business since you were 3 without it having some mark on you. Who I am, the way I think, the way I speak, the way I approach life, has very much to do with that, for better or for worse." - Walken to Interview, June 2004

"I've been in show business since I was a kid, and I must say that I've always known what I was good for. I never thought of myself like [a romantic lead]. I'm very happy to work (knocks wood), and to do good work sometimes, and to get paid. To me, there are things you're good at and things you're not so good at. For some reason, I'm good at darker characters. It has to do with how you look. I think the fact I was raised in show business, in New York City, in the '50s, that's affected my personality to the point I'm a little different." - Walken quoted in Movieline, December 1993

"Offscreen, I'm ordinary, predictable and very conservative. I have two houses, a station wagon, cats, the same wife of 28 years, and I like to save money." - Walken quoted in Parade magazine, Sep. 21, 1997

Time Out New York: "You seem to work all the time. Can't you say no to a good role?"

Christopher Walken: "I can say no to hardly any role! I don't have children, and I don't have hobbies. I don't like to travel, really; I like to stay in the house unless I'm working. So it's better for me psychologically."

- from Time Out New York, April 16-23, 1998

Changed first name to 'Christopher' in 1965, after singer Monique Van Vooren asked to introduce him by that name telling him "I see you more as a Christopher"

In 1994 Walken was the recipient of the William Shakespeare Award for Classic Theatre; presented by The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, DC.

Walken wrote an unproduced screenplay based on the life of porn star John Holmes.