John C. McGinley Quotes

(on how he memorizes his lines and prepares for his roles) I go downstairs and don`t come up from there until I get that stuff hammered in my skull, until I can do it water skiing or jumping out of a plane. It`s all about the text, flushing it out, to excavate, to really get in there and see what falls through your fingers.

I did Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), with Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert down in Buenos Aires, and I stunk. I was infatuated with Orson Welles` filmography at the time, so I wanted to see if I could make my voice as low as his, and I succeeded. Nothing in the text supported that choice, though, so in the film, I look like a jackass. I don`t look like a tough guy, I look like an idiot actor trying to toy around with his vocal apparatus.

(on talking to his Any Given Sunday (1999) costar, Al Pacino) When Johnny (John Cusack) and I were shooting The Jack Bull (1999) (TV) in Calgary, he told me just to go up and knock on Al`s trailer door. That`s the secret of talking to him. If no one knocks on his door, he stays closeted up by himself. It really worked. I spent a lot of time talking to Al.

(on why he feels he never landed a role as a TV series regular until "Scrubs" (2001)) With my dorky head, I guess I just wasn`t handsome enough. I`d do the audition but never hear back. TV tends to look for the living equivalents of squeaky-clean Kens and Barbies, but with my dial I`m more like Ken`s dirty old uncle.

The ("Scrubs" (2001)) pilot script`s notes described the character as a John C. McGinley-type. Now, I don`t know what that type is, but I said, "Well, you`ve got him." I still had to audition five times for the network.