Marton Csokas

Marton: I like the exploration of different psychologies and different physicalities. I also enjoy seeing the world through different eyes at a practical level, and particularly travel.

Marton: (on his "Xena: Warrior Princess" character) I don't see Borias as being bad. I see him as a person who is loyal to his principles, with war being a part of his world. His fundamental motivation was derived from survival, principles of war, family, and even love, and the maintaining of a life beyond just running around killing people. So, in a way, he has quite an honest profession.

Marton: (on leaving New Zealand for Hollywood) I don't feel like I'm an imposter here. There is something amoral, ambivalent or tenuous about somebody's nationality in the arts- it does matter, but then again it doesn't from an actor's perspective.

Marton: (on working on the soap "Shortland Street") People sort of looked down on that, but I learned a lot about what it is to ingest vast quantities of lines, do it quickly, be economical in one's approach, go home, get up the next day, do it again.

Marton: (when if his parents supported him becoming an actor) It's not really a background I come from, and they were very against my becoming an actor, but that was a good thing to kick against.

Marton: Speaking for myself I do enjoy playing the villain.

Marton: There's sort of a fashion associated with film roles these days about how much weight people put on or how much weight people take off but it doesn't really interest me. I'm not a fan of it. I mean, if you play a rapist, do you go out and rape somebody? And all the publicity that surrounds it becomes a subject in its own right and it's like knowing about people's relationships and what have you. You cease to engage in the film that is being made and the story that is being told and you feel like you're apart from it.

Marton: (on the theatre company he co-founded) We called the company Stronghold because we wanted to claim something we believed in. There was a lot of strength and commitment from everyone involved.

Marton: Fear is very powerful, but it's a source of significant energy. So I'm learning what to do with that, rather than implode or explode.

Marton: In America, for

Marton: Small sets can be more intimidating. Nervousness inevitably takes hold of you. The same thing happens on the big sets, but at the same time, you know you are not at the center of everybody's attention. I must say that the Star Wars experience was weird. We never got the whole script, and we didn't know a thing about our characters. We just had to act in front of a blue screen with some of the actors. In the end, they cut my part off completely. Painful, but instructive.

Marton: (on filming "Kingdom of Heaven" in Spain) There were temptations. The challenge there was not to party 24 hours a day and still be able to go to work.

Marton: (on his love scenes with Natasha Richardson for "Asylum") He's described as a failed artist, so I took up drawing. The way an artist looks at the world is completely different from how a lawyer might look at the world, and it helped very much in the love scenes. Natasha suggested looking at Rodin's sculptures and we loved that idea. It was very exciting and very collaborative, like a theater piece, where we would sit around a table and throw everything into the middle of it and argue and disagree and agree and use it as a place to begin rehearsals.

Marton: (on working with Ian McKellen in "Asylum") It was an honor. And the nature of the two characters made for something of a duel and a psychological challenge. Working with him is not unlike walking a tightrope. ... He was a fantastic dancing partner.

Marton: Doing Xena was a fabulous experience. My overriding memory of that time was the camaraderie that was present on the set and another strong woman in the person of Lucy Lawless, whom I admire very much. More so now, since I've worked with many more people after Lucy, so she really impresses me.

Marton: I like the thought and care that goes into theatrical productions. When you rehearse something for five weeks, you have a strong foundation to build on, and you can use your experiences to improve your performance. Even as the play is performed, things change. What was perfect two weeks ago seems redundant, and yet at the time, it was the best thing to do.

Marton: (on his acting career) My background is stage, and I've done a lot in 15 years of acting that you haven't seen. The theater is a place where they treat you as an actor rather than whatever you played the last time they saw you.

Marton: I was in Australia doing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and they were casting for Kangaroo Jack over the next couple weeks - or at least attempting to cast for it. All the other actors and I were sitting around backstage before the show talking about it and all of them said they didn't want to audition, they'd never audition for such a role, they had more respect for themselves than that. I was the only one who admitted that I was going to an audition and everyone kind of booed and made fun of me. But a few days later when I showed up to read, there were three or four of the exact same people from my cast sitting in the waiting room, practicing lines.

Marton: (speaking about "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) I had a very small role as Celeborn. But I felt fortunate to be a part of that. It was extraordinary. The production went on for five or six years. For my part, when I was involved, I was quite star struck by the company.

Marton: (on his acting style) If I play good people, I always try to find the things that aren't good. I look for some qualities that are distasteful or not appreciated. There really shouldn't be a division. So if I play a bad character, I look for their charm, their good points, the things that make them human.

Marton: I would like to try my hand at directing. I think the experience one gains as an actor is a good match for moving into directing— you know how the whole process works.

Marton: (on acting on the show Xena) For me, it taps into childhood experiences of running around imagining all these different worlds. The beauty of this is that the budget allows the crew the freedom to create all the effects, and make up all the environments, the costumes and the weapons. So it's a real playground.