a few interesting things he’s said

Chris Marquette on his role in ‘The Tic Code’ and his acting expectations (from 2008):

“I haven’t really liked anything I’ve done since I was twelve years old. There was a movie that I did then that I love and cherished. I was so proud of it. I’ve done things since then that I’m proud of, but when I see my performance after the cutting room floor, it never really reaches that same level of expectation and happiness that I had when I was twelve.“

Chris Marquette on what kind of work or aspects of his personality he wants to explore in the future (from 2008):

“I can’t paint and I’ve never directed anything and I can’t play an instrument. I can sing, but I don’t like it. I can dance, but I don’t like it. So, I think acting is my outlet, and it’s where I naturally tend to kind of sway in my life. There’s been a billion times where I’ve been like, “Well, what else could I do? Is there something else that’s easier? Is there a business I can get into or something else I can learn?” And acting, there’s nothing else like it in my life, honestly. And if I were to delve into any other part of my personality, it really depends on the time in your life. You go through some really difficult things in your life, and as an actor, if you’re going through some really big struggles, you want to be somebody powerful, because you want to overcome those struggles, so you look for powerful characters. And then there’s times where I’m relaxing and not much is going on and life kind of seems like it’s a little stale, so I just want to relax and hang out and enjoy it as much as possible. And maybe that means doing a funny character or playing somebody funny, so you can go on set and make jokes and make yourself laugh and make other people laugh. So, I think in the future, I think it’s the wild side and the wild man in me.“

Chris Marquette on the importance of having good friends (from 2007):

“What I have realized which is nice is that I have a really close group of friends and they’re all actors for the most part, and they’re all actors I’m up against all the time. You get to know somebody well enough you understand that everybody’s in the same boat. You’re all floating at the exact same speed. It’s nice because as a kid I’ve grown up doing this, and as an adolescent it’s so easy to get jealous and it’s so easy to envy somebody and it’s so easy for people to really turn against you over a project which after a long time you realize it’s not that important. You do movies, you keep going and you do them. Some seem like a big deal and they end up doing nothing, and some seem like nothing and they end up being a big deal. You really can’t tell, so at a certain point your friends are the ones that matter, and that’s sort of how I’ve kept it.”

Chris Marquette on why he likes working in independent film (from 2006):

“Independent films offer so much more freedom than studios do. In independent films, you go there and it’s like you can make up whatever the hell you want on the day, because it feels right. And there’s nobody sitting there, whipping you on the back for it. So the hard part with studio films is, you’ve got an idea but it’s gotta go through ten people that want to OK it, everybody wants to put their two cents in, so by the time your idea goes in there, it’s not your idea anymore. A lot of that is all just really hard and disappointing.”

Chris Marquette on which movie or project he’s done stands out for him (from 2006):

“You know, the only thing that I’ve been really able to watch, to continuously be proud of, is this movie I did when I was young, called The Tic Code. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been able to watch and think, that’s my life-long career goal, to go back to doing something like The Tic Code that I can be really proud of.”

Chris Marquette on whom he would really like to work with (from 2006):

“There’s one person I have had a chance to work with that I would work with forever for the rest of my life, like, only if I had the option, is Nick Cassavetes, the guy who did Alpha Dog. If I could just do his movies for the rest of my life, I’d be happy. Other than that, I don’t know. He’s the best actor’s director I’ve ever worked with, by a long shot.”

Chris Marquette about working with his younger brother Sean on “The Beautiful Ordinary” (from 2006):

“It was awesome, it was ridiculous, it was really weird. All of a sudden he grew up and he’s this, like, actor. He’s a really great, talented, young actor. It was so weird. I always thought he was really special and really could offer something to whatever he’s working on, but it was like a peer, and it mirrors our life, in a way. Like all of a sudden he’s a young man.”

Chris Marquette on whether he likes baseball (from 2006):

“Yeah, I like baseball. I’ve always been a soccer guy. So I’ve always been huge on soccer. That was my sport as a kid. I played baseball, I played basketball, but I sucked at all of them. Well, except for soccer. Soccer, I was pretty decent at. I’m not as good as I was when I was a kid, but I still can play.”

Chris Marquette’s thoughts on episode 2×19 Trial & Error of Joan or Arcadia (the one where Adam cheats on Joan) (from 2006):

“Oh, you have no idea! I hated it! I got in the biggest argument with all the producers. You have no idea. I was like: You’re going to ruin me… as an actor. Because you don’t understand, anybody who ever likes me on the show is because of my relationship with Joan. And there is absolutely no reason why he should do this. I fought that for about two weeks when I first got the script, and then when I went in, I even fought about, like, OK, well I guess if he has to cheat, what exactly are we gonna do with it then? Is it all gonna be in vain, is there like a—? You know, I tried to make a reason. To make him a bit more immature, and a bit more like he’s got tons of hormones and he’s a teenager, and some girl just lays herself out and he just has to. You know? And that still didn’t really come across, so…”

“I was, like, guys, you don’t understand, this makes no sense. And to be honest, the studio, those people, wanted to make the show for kids. They wanted to make it for young kids. Literally, I think they wanted to make it like The O.C. And so the idea was [to] make people cheat on people. And make people heartbroken. And if there’s any decent character, make him an a–hole. Why are you gonna do that to these nice people with this decent relationship? At the same time the only thing that they sort of convinced me was nice about it, they said after a while, you guys are kinda like an old married couple. And I was like, I can kinda see that. That was their thing to me. Which, to be honest, was hiding the fact that they were trying to make us The O.C. But at the same time, it was like: OK, this is what it has to be. You have no idea, I really… I went through a lot of hell with that episode.”

“We were all upset. Amber and I sat down with Jim Hayman and Peter Schindler, and uh, a couple— I forgot exactly who wrote that episode because the writers all switched so much. But we sat down with all five of them and we were like, we can’t do this. I don’t know what you guys are doing, but we can’t do this. You want us to break up, we’ll break up, but don’t have him cheat on her. Amber was upset, I was upset, everybody was. It really didn’t make any sense. Michael Welch came to me, Jason Ritter came to me, even Mary Steenburgen, everybody came and was like, I don’t understand why they’re doing it. I was like, me either! Everybody was completely against it.”

Chris Marquette on doing TV roles (from 2006):

“The hard part with TV is that you could possibly do the same part for six years in a row. And that’s really difficult to sign on to. I signed on to Joan [of Arcadia] because I really started to love that part. I realized after about a year and a half, I might have to play the same character for six years, and I’d never done that before. Every character you play, you take on everything and you let it go. And you leave your project and you let all those things go and you forget about it and they sort of become a part of you in a way and that’s it, you move on.”

“After a while I felt like I’m not doing my job. I’m just being this character, and I don’t know if it’s the character or me anymore, I couldn’t tell. So it’s just one of those things of, well this is it. I’m doing my job, it’s not challenging anymore, it’s easy. If my job’s easy, I feel like I’m not doing my job. So, it’s a hard commitment to make. Do you wanna go be comfortable for six years? Well, if I’m comfortable, am I really gaining anything? Am I moving in a certain direction? So that’s the hard part. At this point in my career, I really don’t think I would [do another long-term TV role].”

Chris Marquette on the “Joan of Arcadia” season 2 specials about the episode Queen of the Zombies (from 2006):

“Craziest episode was Queen of the Zombies. Everytime I think about that, my head starts… you know, my brain’s rotating slowly in my head. You know, it’s like [it] can’t even process anything.”

Chris Marquette on the “Just Friends” specials about the freezing cold temperatures in Saskatchewan where the movie was shot (from 2006):

“You walk out and you have no genitals. You’re like a Ken doll. Huh! Where did they go?”

Chris Marquette on the “Just Friends” specials about having someone you’re ‘just friends’ with, even though you’d like it to be more (from 2006):

“Oh, dude! Listen, I know, Nancy! Oh yeah, dude, totally. Oh man, she drove me cra– I know, everyone has got one of those people. There was this really, really sweet girl named Elizabeth. And it was just like a wall, like you cannot get through me.”

Chris Marquette about preferring scripts that aren’t too obvious and different genres in acting in an interview in 2006:

“It gets a better reaction when you’re not telling people what to think or what to know. You’re creating more interesting characters, and it’s a lot more real. Natural is comfortable.”

“I prefer drama, but comedy is different and unique. Dark comedy is the hardest… It’s fun and challenging.”

Chris Marquette about becoming an actor and his preference for either TV or movies in an interview in 2005:

“I started when I was 4, so I take my mother and father’s word on it when they say I always wanted this. When I was young, I never thought of it as a career so much as a sport, like T-ball or soccer, just something fun to do.”

“I’m not one of those actors who has a problem with TV, who considers himself above TV or anything like that, but with movies, you can just move on to so many different things. I want to do it all.”

Chris Marquette about devoted soap opera fans in an interview in 2005:

“I also remember the fans and how devoted they were. I was in this storyline where my character ran away, then he was found, but he didn’t want to come home. I don’t remember why, but he was being really bratty. After that, what was really weird was that I got a bunch of letters from fans saying, ‘How dare you do that to so-and-so!’ They sounded very angry. But then at the end, the person would write, ‘P.S. You’re a great actor and I loved your scene with so-and-so.'”

Chris Marquette about what he was like in high school and about his career goals from interview in 2004:

“I was a total dork. I always had good friends. I’ve always been around good people. I was never in the most popular crowd – not the ones that were made fun of all the time but definitely the ones who weren’t going to the parties. […] I was never totally an outsider and I think that’s what’s leading my career in this direction of playing these out of the ordinary, unique people.”

“I want to be acting until I’m dead. I would hope in ten years that I would have sort of the freedom to not want or crave acting as much as I do now.”

Chris Marquette about making a character come to life and his view on God from an interview in 2004:

“I think the most important part of being an actor is making the words come to life, to get across the feelings and words that the writer is trying to create. With any character I [play], what I try to add is a full-on character rather than just what’s written.”

“I’m Christian, I do believe God has talked to people and actually has told people to do specific things, like in Bible stories such as Noah and Moses. I do believe in that aspect and the history of my own religion to a certain extent, but as far as my own connection with God, it’s not actually about doing specific things – it’s hard to explain. I just think that God exists everywhere. […] Let’s say there are three choices you can make: if you make the first choice, you go down this other path, if you make the second choice you go down this path, and if you make the third choice, you go down a completely other path. I feel like God maybe has an effect on your decision, as far as you thinking which path is the best path to take – that doesn’t necessarily mean that he tells you to take a certain one, but, maybe, for someone who believes in God, they have enough faith to where they will feel that God is helping them make the right decisions. Life’s really all about decisions and making sense of things.”

Chris Marquette about finding your own way from an interview in 2003:

“I was sort of a loser in high school for a while. I got out of high school and started doing home school and I think once I got more confidence in not trying to impress people, I think then I found my own kind of cool side. I don’t consider myself cool at all, but I just found some sort of confidence. I think that’s all it really is.”

Chris Marquette about why he likes being an actor from an interview in 2000 or 2001:

“Being an actor? There’s a lot of things. I like to travel, I like to meet people. I just like to entertain. I just like making people laugh and making them smile and cry and… I mean, not cry. I guess [you] just show them a good time. That’s what it’s all about.”

Chris Marquette about how he can cry on screen at the drop of a hat from an interview in 1997:

“The way I do it is I think of something really terrible and horrible. Once I think of that I put myself in the character. You can’t just say the lines; you’ve really got to feel it and understand what’s going on. Once the scene is done and we go on to the next one I have to get myself prepeared. I wipe away those tears and put on a smile.”