ByQuotes

Ato Essandoh Quotes

Powerful Ato Essandoh for Daily Growth

When I tell my friends, 'I'm in the 'Bourne' movie,' they're like, 'Congratulations! Wait... is Matt Damon coming back?' I go, 'Yeah.' And they're like, 'Yo! Matt Damon! Matty D!' Everyone pretends they know Matt Damon. It's exciting.

- Ato Essandoh

Wait, Tell, Movie, Matt

'Copper' is my first period piece. It's funny because I've been doing a lot of episodes of 'Elementary' with Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu; they keep bringing me back on the show, and so I go from being an outstanding black doctor to being a kind of hood, ex-car thief who went through rehab in 'Elementary.'

- Ato Essandoh

Doing, Through, Been, Johnny

It's funny because as much as I've done Dr. Freeman, I guess because I shave right afterwards, people don't recognize me necessarily as Dr. Freeman, whereas a small role like 'Garden State' or 'Get Him to the Greek', which is the funniest one to me, they're like, 'Hey, you're that dude!' and you're like, 'Oh my God!' Which is awesome.

- Ato Essandoh

Small, Him, Role, Freeman

I think I'm a good actor, but to replicate tens of thousands of man hours in surgery is really hard.

- Ato Essandoh

Think, Tens, Replicate, Surgery

It's not selling out, necessarily, to do something to gain some kind of notoriety that gives you the cache to do be able to go and do something else that you want. There's some dues that you just have to pay in life.

- Ato Essandoh

Kind, Want, Some, Dues

There's some dues that you just have to pay in life.

- Ato Essandoh

Some, Pay, Just, Dues

When you're a guest star on a movie or a TV show, I always say it's like being invited to a family reunion, but it's not your family. So you don't belong - they're being nice to you, but you don't fit in completely; you don't know everybody's story. You don't have a history.

- Ato Essandoh

Belong, Everybody, TV, Guest Star

I love the notion of a dude sitting there with an untuned guitar tapping his foot and just singing his passion out; that's what got me into music in the first place.

- Ato Essandoh

Love, Singing, Tapping, Dude

I know I'm supposed to say this, but I really, genuinely think Matt Damon is a great dude.

- Ato Essandoh

Think, Matt, Genuinely, Dude

I see it in a lot of period pieces where everybody is standing and talking, in a stilted, archaic way, instead of being loose in the world. So, I try to do a little bit of research, just so that I can feel like I'm grounded, but then I try to bring as much of my human understanding that I can, under the filter of it being 1865.

- Ato Essandoh

Everybody, Period Pieces, Filter

If you get too deep into the history, what often happens to a lot of us actors is that we become stilted. We forget that we're reading about something that happened a hundred years ago. If we don't put the human emotion that would naturally be in there, we end up being stilted instead of being human beings.

- Ato Essandoh

Deep, About, Hundred, Hundred Years

You look at how Barack Obama has had to conduct himself as President. It reminds me of Jackie Robinson, how he had to be very careful to reassure people that this was all right. And you still have people trying to tear him down. They make up all sorts of lies, with the goal of making him seem illegitimate.

- Ato Essandoh

Very, Careful, Obama, Reminds

You look at how Barack Obama has had to conduct himself as president. It reminds me of Jackie Robinson, how he had to be very careful to reassure people that this was all right.

- Ato Essandoh

Very, Robinson, Obama, Reminds

I was in chemical engineering at Cornell University. My girlfriend at the time dared me to do a play. I knew there was something I wanted, not necessarily engineering.

- Ato Essandoh

Play, University, Knew, Dared

I was a chemical engineer in school. And, randomly, an ex-girlfriend dared me to do a play.

- Ato Essandoh

School, Play, Chemical, Dared

Our next black president, I think, can be more like Muhammad Ali.

- Ato Essandoh

Think, Next, I Think, None

White artists have made millions of dollars off music they stole from black artists. I don't blame all the white artists. I'm a huge Stevie Ray Vaughn fan, and he was always very gracious about where he learned his music. But a lot of the time, you'd think the white guys thought it up. Hey, hasn't anyone heard of Muddy Waters?

- Ato Essandoh

Thought, Very, About, Hey

You don't want to be a gimmick. You don't want to be a set piece, where people go, 'Hey, that's weird.'

- Ato Essandoh

Weird, Set, Piece, Hey

I'd never thought about acting as a job. I was an engineer; I was in science and technology. I loved movies and television growing up, but I'd never thought about it as, 'Oh, that guy Denzel Washington is employed as an actor.'

- Ato Essandoh

Science And Technology, Denzel

Everything musically, for me, there's two kinds of music. There's Prince and Jimi Hendrix and then Miles Davis and everything filters through that.

- Ato Essandoh

Through, Kinds, Jimi Hendrix, Hendrix

I never heard about tefillin. I was unfamiliar with the deep history and ritual of being an Orthodox Jew. Before you get out of bed, you say a prayer, and then you get out of bed, say another one.

- Ato Essandoh

Deep, Bed, Ritual, Unfamiliar

My dad, when he was young, did Shakespeare in school, and my mom was a little bit of an artist, but everybody was pragmatic.

- Ato Essandoh

Artist, Young, Everybody, Pragmatic

I never thought I'd play an orthodox Jewish man.

- Ato Essandoh

Thought, Play, Never, Orthodox

Growing up near Scarsdale, I should have had at least one Jewish girlfriend. Maybe at some point it'll happen.

- Ato Essandoh

Happen, Some, Maybe, At Least One

When people say Jerry Lee Lewis invented rock n' roll, they forget Little Richard. People talk about Elvis Presley and forget he was singing black music. I don't blame Elvis. It was the music business figuring it could make more money from this music if it weren't presented from the original source.

- Ato Essandoh

Music Business, Roll, About, Presented

The Chinese Student Association at Cornell put together their own play. It was all Asian people in the cast except for me, because they wanted to do a couple of scenes about an interracial relationship. I was the only non-Asian person on stage; the entire audience was Asian apart from my 10 friends that showed up.

- Ato Essandoh

Play, Student, Couple, Apart

A really good impressionist, even if they don't look at all like the person they're impersonating, it's a weird thing where they start to look like that person. It's kind of odd.

- Ato Essandoh

Kind, Like, Weird Thing, Impressionist

I've never dated a Jewish woman.

- Ato Essandoh

Woman, Never, Jewish, Dated

I have the softest beard in the world. As far as growing it, it doesn't itch, and it's so non-intrusive. But, I am so sick of hair on my face and on my head. Because I'm not a really hairy guy, I'm not really used to it.

- Ato Essandoh

Sick, Guy, Used, As Far As

Just the little bit that I've learned about Judaism, I didn't realize how, dare I say, intense that religion is as far as all of the things that you have to know and remember and the ritualism of it.

- Ato Essandoh

Say, About, Learned, As Far As

If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.