“There are no right and wrong ways to work in this business, but there are some basic common-sense practices. Work very, very hard and always be prepared; never give up; and once you get the job, give them more than they ever expected: – Shine!”
― Jimmy Smits
“If you’re given gifts or blessings in your life, it’s up to you to help the guy coming up behind you.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’ve been very lucky to work on a wide variety of projects, including two long-run and top-10 dramatic television shows. That is why it is so important to offer a helping hand to the next generation of young Latinos coming up behind me.”
― Jimmy Smits
“You have to find what makes you stable in the storm. Then, no matter what’s happening round you, no matter what the hype or the publicity, you can still manage to make leaps in your work as an artist.”
― Jimmy Smits
“The hits and the misses. I just want to keep the at-bats solid.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I grew up in New York City, and I’ve got wonderful memories of the Fourth of July fireworks.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I get my jolt of energy in New York. I get mi familia vibe in New York.”
― Jimmy Smits
“My comfort zone has always been in an ensemble-type atmosphere.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Michael C. Hall is an incredibly detailed actor who can convey so much with just an eyebrow.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Celebrity hits like a bomb.”
― Jimmy Smits
“For minority actors, developing our own projects has to be the eventual path. We have a lot of stories to tell and a really unique voice. But none of that is going to be heard as long as we’re just the hired hands, acting.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m an actor. I love to act. That’s my job. I’ll leave the politicking to others.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’ve been in California for about 15 years now. You’re always in your car and insulated. I miss New York so much.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I am a firm believer in education and have worked very hard to tell young Latinos that they must go to college and that, if possible, they should pursue an advanced degree. I am convinced that education is the great equalizer.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I like the gypsy aspect of this business.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I never thought television would or could be a long-term commitment.”
― Jimmy Smits
“If you’re afraid to live your life in a glass bubble, how can you do what we do in this industry?”
― Jimmy Smits
“In my college years, I worked as a union labor organizer. I was just one of the many workers trying to do my part to help the community.”
― Jimmy Smits
“It’s less about the physical training, in the end, than it is about the mental preparation: boxing is a chess game. You have to be skilled enough and have trained hard enough to know how many different ways you can counterattack in any situation, at any moment.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Just give me a good role that allows me to hone my craft, and I am a pretty happy camper.”
― Jimmy Smits
“There’s something so familial and intimate between a boxer and his trainer.”
― Jimmy Smits
“When we are out there selling a new picture, when did it become part of the deal that you have to sell the family? To use the juicy part of your life to get attention? I’m not blaming the reporters. It’s the system.”
― Jimmy Smits
“As an actor and as a performer, I’ve felt that the education system has really helped me in a lot of ways… there was always a teacher or a professor along the way that kept pushing me to the next stage.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Education is the key in so many ways.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Media images are so important to young people feeling positive about themselves.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’ve always strived to keep mixing it up, keep doing different things, and work in all different parts of our business.”
― Jimmy Smits
“The Latino population has become such a presence. We are part of the American tapestry in a very profound way, in every area you can think of, and are very significant in popular culture.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m not a policy wonk – I’m somewhere between being undecided and a surrogate.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I save the rage for the stage.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Unfortunately, considering that we Latinos are really big for movie companies when they have blockbuster releases or new cable shows, when it comes to the dynamic of supporting our own product, it leaves much to be desired.”
― Jimmy Smits
“When you have celebrity, it’s a whole different thing than being an artist.”
― Jimmy Smits
“As an actor, I just want to keep mixing it up.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I had opportunities to stay on shows for long periods of time, and maybe financially that would have been good, but I feel good about trying to keep doing things that are a little bit different than what I’ve done.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I couldn’t see myself doing a traditional sitcom.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I almost feel like sometimes when I’m on location, you miss your home and your family and all that stuff, but it keeps you focused on the work.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I worked on a show called ‘West Wing’ before. I didn’t work with Aaron Sorkin, but he created the show and set the tenor of the show, which was you follow the words of the script perfectly because there’s a dramaturgical thing behind it.”
― Jimmy Smits
“’West Wing’ was a show about politics.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m socially awkward in life, and that’s one of the reasons why I do what I do. I’m more about interpreting other people’s words.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Everything in moderation, like calories.”
― Jimmy Smits
“When I sit down and sign up for something, I vet where the people are coming from.”
― Jimmy Smits
“The friendships I made on ‘L.A. Law,’ with the cast and Steven Bochco and David Kelley were really wonderful.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I started out in the theater, and my background is classical. I’d love to be in a film version of a Shakespeare play.”
― Jimmy Smits
“The Fourth of July concert is invigorating in so many ways, in terms of what it feels like to be an American.”
― Jimmy Smits
“It just makes you feel proud, more than anything else, that the work has in some way transcended itself.”
― Jimmy Smits
“You can’t get so serious as to not realize that what we do is entertainment, but when you have the chance to provoke thought or advance discussion on a topic, it’s just the icing on the cake.”
― Jimmy Smits
“It’s great to be able to play the ‘bad guy’ role, because you always get a lot to do, but I’m always looking at the why – how does a person get to that particular point.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I feel a responsibility to try and give back. I see young people out there who are trained, and any way I can help them and give them an opportunity is gratifying.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I went to Brooklyn College as an education major. It was a big deal in the family, but really, I was living for Mom and Dad.”
― Jimmy Smits
“At first, I took theater courses on the side. Then, theater became my minor; then it was my major.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I think education was the key for me, and that’s what I tell kids. That base in the classics gave me something to springboard from, which I wouldn’t have had if I’d come out to Los Angeles early and been guest punk of the week on ‘Hill Street Blues.’”
― Jimmy Smits
“Women think the people that I play are smoldering and dangerous. I look in the mirror, and I go, ‘I don’t get it.’”
― Jimmy Smits
“I am very Latino in everything I am and I do, but there’s a part of me that’s also something else. I’m reflective of the way this country’s gonna be in the next 40 years. More multicultural is what we’ll see.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I can’t get into talking about why another actor left. It has nothing to do with me.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Nude scenes aren’t fun.”
― Jimmy Smits
“It’s a lot of pressure. Some of the cast wants a StairMaster on the set so you can work out like crazy before your naked scene.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Growing up in New York, we lived all around the city depending on our economic circumstance. I also lived in Puerto Rico for a number of years.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’ve been lucky because I’ve had wonderful teachers along the way who have nurtured and pushed me to the next level.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Nurturing a project from the ground floor is something I’ve been wanting to do.”
― Jimmy Smits
“There are some things you have to give up to the higher power.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I used to wear sneakers with those nice suits because I wanted Victor Sifuentes to have a bounce in the courtroom.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m happy that just about on every other show there’s a Latino somewhere present, and we’re not all the cooks anymore.”
― Jimmy Smits
“What we need to focus on is not that we’re not nominated, but that we have many more Latinos that are in prominent positions on shows all across the dial than ever before.”
― Jimmy Smits
“We’re at a point right now in our development in this country – setting the immigration issue aside – that you can’t ignore the sheer population of us in metropolitan areas all across the country, of how significant Latino-ness is in the United States.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I have no tattoos at all – it was a huge undertaking for me in the ’80s to let my parents know I was piercing my ear when I did ‘L.A. Law.’”
― Jimmy Smits
“I don’t know… I don’t think you can trust any of Kurt’s characters. That’s how Mr. Sutter operates: nothing is what it seems.”
― Jimmy Smits
“It’s a lot of a workload doing an hour dramatic show. It’s just incredible what little time off you get.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Variety is the thing for me to be able to work in theater and be involved in more films and TV movies that say something.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m not going to leave one of the best shows to do another TV show.”
― Jimmy Smits
“What’s on the page dictates a lot of what I do. When the words are there, it’s easy.”
― Jimmy Smits
“When you’re 27 million strong, no one can tell you that you don’t belong or expect you to just move along.”
― Jimmy Smits
“California has been very good to me in terms of the professional arena.”
― Jimmy Smits
“There’s a lot of successful procedural shows that are out there. A lot of them are very successful. I just know there’s an audience out there that wants character also.”
― Jimmy Smits
“There’s show business, and the business is sometimes in capital letters. You just have to give it your best shot when up at bat.”
― Jimmy Smits
“With the advent of cable and such, you guys are calling it the golden age of TV in terms of the writing and stuff. But it’s like different branches of a big tree that TV has become.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I do want to be involved in quality projects that say something positive about the Latino community.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I don’t feel I have to acknowledge how I’m doing by an award.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Every actor has to deal with what’s on his plate, and I try to deal with doing the best work possible with the most challenging scripts. I don’t base it on whether it’s a feature film or a TV-movie or cable.”
― Jimmy Smits
“What happens to George Clooney and Bruce Willis is great, but I can’t gauge my career by anyone else’s.”
― Jimmy Smits
“When I grew up, we went to Coney Island and Central Park. We’d find our way to the water and watch the fireworks.”
― Jimmy Smits
“My career aspirations as an actor have always been driven foremost by the creative desire to be versatile.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I have and will continue to vigorously pursue opportunities in all mediums.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m usually very analytical when I’m prepping stuff: real into the head thing.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I don’t want to have the bounds put on me in terms of mediums.”
― Jimmy Smits
“For me, the bottom line is what’s on the page.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Of course you draw from yourself, but the artistic nourishment you want to get is be versatile, do something different, and I think I got a chance to do that in a lot of different ways.”
― Jimmy Smits
“When you’re doing 22 shows on network television, the writers are going on vapors towards the end and, as an actor, you’re just trashed by the end.”
― Jimmy Smits
“The great thing about working in cable is that, since the season is truncated – we only do 12 shows – the writers are more at ease in terms of mapping out the trajectory of the story and the characters.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Doing a truncated series is like doing a long movie, which allows for a certain artistic freedom. After just 12 episodes, you can take a breather and do other things for your career.”
― Jimmy Smits
“As an actor, it’s hard to approach any character with negatives.”
― Jimmy Smits
“An actor tries to be versatile, to immerse himself in a different culture.”
― Jimmy Smits
“We tend to think of World War II and all the atrocities that happened, and people say, ‘Never again.’ But these things are still happening. The Amnesty International files are big.”
― Jimmy Smits
“My life hasn’t changed that much. Sure, people recognize me, and airports can get tough, but the people who stop me tend to be real nice.”
― Jimmy Smits
“That ‘who’s the sexiest’ business is a crock that the media cooked up to sell magazines, so while I say thank you very much, I don’t put much stock in it.”
― Jimmy Smits
“My central strength as an actor is the fact that I’m 6 foot 3. A certain power emanates from my size, juxtaposed with the fact that I try to find an element of sensitivity in every character I play. People enjoy seeing that because it goes against what we’re led to expect as far as the way men are supposed to be – macho and all that.”
― Jimmy Smits
“People become actors because they want to hide, and it’s not easy to talk about myself. I accept that a certain responsibility goes with being an actor in the public eye, but I haven’t found a comfortable way to deal with it.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I have been in rooms with people arguing over a character that’s not really fleshed out: that, just because the surname is Latino, that automatically means you have an accent.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’ve been told that I wasn’t Latino enough, which was code for ‘street’ enough.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I was asked to speak at a bar association, because there’s an upswing on college applications – in general and for Latinos – because of ‘L.A. Law.’ I went to a couple of functions, and I just felt an energy: It was, you’re doing a good job, but do you realize how important it is?”
― Jimmy Smits
“How come actors feel like they have to give some kind of personal revelation attached to the project?”
― Jimmy Smits
“I have carried the burden of being a role model for some time. And that’s great. The body of work I’ve done has afforded me that opportunity.”
― Jimmy Smits
“Latino people have come up to me and said they were motivated to become a lawyer because they saw me play one on TV – and you can’t discount how great it is when they tell me I was the first.”
― Jimmy Smits
“There just aren’t enough positive portrayals of Latino life in film.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I left ‘L.A. Law’ after five years when my contract was up because I felt I had done all I could do with the character. I didn’t walk off the show with a three-picture deal to pursue this wonderful film career.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’m happy David Caruso is out there working.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I work out, but I’m not doing it specifically because I show my butt on TV.”
― Jimmy Smits
“As an actor, you think to yourself, ‘I want to do good work,’ but you also want the work that you do to make an impact in some way.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I always grapple with myself, from job to job, ‘Is this going to make an impact in some way?’”
― Jimmy Smits
“I was in Puerto Rico going to school, and it was very jarring for me. ‘Traumatic’ is the only way that I can say it. Kids were making fun of me: ‘Oh, you’re a Yankee.’ And I acted out a lot. A lot. But looking back, and through a little bit of therapy, everything I am has to do with that time.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I know it affected me when I saw certain actors growing up. I had a drama teacher that would take us to see plays in New York, and it was seeing James Earl Jones and Raul Julia – I mean, this guy comes from the place my mother comes from. He’s doing Shakespeare right now, and it doesn’t seem to matter that he has an accent.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I’ve had the good fortune to play characters that have a role-model thing to them.”
― Jimmy Smits
“I wasn’t a great student, but I was interested in this theater thing, and I could spend hours in the library researching why the cuffs in the 18th century had four buttons. It was my handle.”
― Jimmy Smits
“All my Latino side is from the Bronx.”
― Jimmy Smits
“You gotta find that hook so everybody can grab on to it. So that you’re true to the culture but, at the same time, how it relates to the larger tapestry.”
― Jimmy Smits
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