5 Actors Speak on Being Selective When Choosing Roles

In Hollywood, it’s all about picking the right roles, and although not everyone can afford to be selective, these 5 actors and actresses say they’re at a place in their career where they aren’t willing to just take a role for the money or because their agent is pushing them in to it. These stars will only say ‘yes’ to a role if it personally speaks to them, they believe in the part and know they’ll be happy with how the film turns out. Only accepting parts that they believe in, these stars will only approach a project they really care about.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina will only accept  a part if she feels it’s worth her time: “I’ve had a wonderful career and I’m very happy to have had all the opportunities to tell stories and work for as long as I have. I’m sure there will be more films but I am happy I am able to be selective and have fun with characters like this but I would like to focus on writing and directing and above all I would like to focus more on my work with the UN.”

Brad Pitt

Brad only takes roles he feels strongly about: “I choose a role solely by how it speaks to me. And I sit in a fortunate seat where I can pull the trigger on the more difficult films. I was once talked into a film for ‘career maintenance.’ I have not made that mistake since.”

Kristen Stewart

Kristen stopped working because she couldn’t find something she liked: “When I take on a role, I really like to think, and I do not care what people think about them afterwards. I really want the experience. I think a lot of actors—not good ones—are just product oriented, as is the business. I didn’t make a movie for a really long time because I didn’t get offered anything that I liked. I didn’t work for two years.”

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leo usually approaches directors personally so he knows what to expect from a role: “you have to be careful who you trust that power with. I’ve seen good material go to the wrong filmmaker, and it never captures what you believed the story was supposed to be. I guess you could say I target most of the directors I want to work with.”

Shailene Woodley

Shailene only cares about finding interesting, inspiring roles: “After The Descendants, everybody was like, ‘You’ve got to ride the wave!’ And I was like, ‘You ride the wave and it eventually crashes on the shore.’ That doesn’t work out! I’m going to just sit here and paddleboard. I didn’t do a movie for two years because I didn’t read anything that was inspiring to me.”