Jason Butler Harner

“The fact is as you get older you can't just change things or be quite as laissez-faire; you're conscious of the effort and time it takes for things to happen.”

“But I was a sensitive kid. A funny kid, and a perceptive one. There was a lot of time spent alone.”

“I remember when I got my Equity card doing the Scottish play at the Public Theater with Angela Bassett and Alec Baldwin. Alec thought I should just be Butler Harner, but I thought it would make people laugh if they had to call me Butler.”

“I have to have sound in my ears for 10 minutes prior. I come to the theater early, two hours, just to calm down and warm up.”

“In theater acting, you leave that night and what it was is what it was.”

“I'm not a person who romanticizes what being an actor should be.”

“You see these juicy roles, and 9 times out of 10, they'll go to a much more established actor. It's the nature of the business.”

“Well, I won't say I'm cynical. I'd say I'm pragmatic.”

“When I did 'The Green' with Cheyenne Jackson, I was the lead of a film for the first time. That was really fun; I hadn't dug in to a part like that before.”

“I'm a constant waffler. I've said to anyone I've ever dated, 'Asking me to choose a restaurant is going to be a conversation that's going on for a while.'”

“Now that I'm 40, I knew I wasn't going to pass for 25.”

“I am much closer to the Butler side of the family, which is on mother's side, from where I get my middle name. My parents divorced when I was seven, and I remember as a kid always being fascinated by my full name.”

“I sometimes wish I had a good 'one syllable, one syllable' name, like Brad Pitt.”

“I have three lines in 'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3' about having to go to the bathroom, and it's the most money I ever made.”

“I am blessed to have made my career as an actor for a decade now and I'm grateful for that. It could arguably have gone better in ways and it certainly could have gone worse, but you have to keep fueling the fire.”

“I'm the kind of actor who truly believes that every play is a company play.”