"'With your face,'" I said, "'and the fact that you can act inside that face, you're going to be a great big star.' Now in this film I have my prediction proved true, and it's a pleasure to be back with him again to say it to his face."
Prediction made by Rufus's Dark City nemesis Ian Richardson when they first met in New York five years before making that film.


"He's a beast, Rufus, an absolute beast!  He gives off pheromones like abattoirs give off excrements.  It is quite extraordinary!  You have to nail some people down when Rufus walks into a room ."
Remarks made by British actor Stephen Fry, one of Rufus's co-stars in Cold Comfort Farm, at that film's English Premiere.


"This was a great cast - a great cast. Rufus Sewell is just a marvelous - just really a great actor. There’s something very dark about him, and very mysterious - and at the same time very haunting - and seductive - and that’s what makes a great evil guy, you know, is that he can play either side.....
I love what he does because he chooses so many different kinds of roles and the mere fact that as good-looking as he is - he chose to play this evil guy.  I just love -
I love that - and that's what makes his - the evil part of him so seductive, is because he is so good-looking."
Kim Basinger, co-star of "Bless The Child"

"Rufus, I loved working with him - he was angelic, my anchor.  They (Rufus Sewell and Martin Donovan) were both fantastic actors, not selfish at all and the really helped me.  I relied on their support and faith in me to do the job."

"A giving kind of person - he makes everybody feel good about themselves, everybody on the whole set.  He kind of has love swirling around him all the time.  He's like a little angel.
Maya Stange, star of "In A Savage Land"

From Bill Bennett, Director of "In A Savage Land"

"We met him in London and he was immediately impressive.  He had responded strongly to the material, and he had such extraordinary charisma, apart from the fact that he is a truly wonderfully technical actor.  He had extraordinary charisma and the pairing of him and Maya just seemed like it would be right. So we were delighted when he accepted the role."

From Carrington

"Gertler was pretty and wild, and rather poetic and trouble, all of which Rufus is so he was a pretty obvious choice." Janey Fothergill

"Rufus is very passionate," and used to work himself up into the most terrible states sometimes. He always pitched every scene just right but you knew what you had to do was to keep going until he really delivered the whole thing."
"Carrington" director, Christopher Hampton

        From The Press

                 
                             Count Adhemar
                              "A Knight's Tale"  

His Own words

"It's the kind of wine that steps up behind you, taps you on the
shoulder and says, "I knew your grandfather".  
on the set of "A Knight's Tale"

"I didn't get the character from reading books but more from what
he did in his life; things he said, letters he wrote,  the paintings
he worked on.  It's not a deliberate self-conscious thing, but you're
just trying to get a sense of the person. I've never played anything
like him before but it really appealed to me because he was so 
unusual and beautifully written and I could really understand him."
on the character Mark Gertler, whom he played in "Carrington.

"We filmed A Knight’s Tale in the Czech Republic, mostly because
it is five times cheaper than filming anywhere else. I had a lovely
apartment in Prague, which is a stunningly beautiful city. It is the
most architecturally complete place in the sense that, unlike Paris
or London, or anywhere else for that matter, there are no modern
monstrosities that get in the way — until you get to the outskirts,
where the Eastern bloc buildings are really grey and depressing".

"Some of the best travelling I have done is when I have been to a
place to work rather than as a tourist. One of the most beautiful times
I have had was in Rome when I was filming The Honest Courtesan with
Catherine McCormack at the Cinecittŕ Studios. I had a beautiful
14th-century apartment just off the Piazza Navona and, because I had
o much time off, my best memories are of walking around the streets,
taking photographs and sitting in cafés, being in this idyllic place and
thinking: “God, sometimes I am so lucky.” Consequently, when I think
of Rome I don’t think of the work but of the time I spent not working."

Excerpts from "My Cultural Life"
The London Times
September 8, 2001

From his roles

"You are a smudge on history's ledger, but you are my brother."
Agamemnon (to Menelaus) - Helen Of Troy

"You have been weighed, you have been measured, and
you have been found wanting."
Count Adhemar - A Knight's Tale


"I will not yield, To kiss the ground before young
Malcolm's feet, And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, And thou
opposed, being of no woman born, Yet I will try the last.
Before my body I throw my warlike shield! Lay on, Macduff,
And damned be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'"
Macbeth

"It means I am imperfect ... born imperfect -- educated
imperfectly ... molded in my formative years by imperfect
hands ......and so expect naught else.  If you look for
someone to love you imperfectly ... look no further, I am he.
If you will still love me ... I am he"
Dominique - Illuminata

"I'm afraid.  What if something were to happen to one of us
before the signin' and the swearin' are done..and it's too late ...
too late for me to tell you what's in my heart?  I could lie dyin'...
and still never have even touched you with my love. "
Giles Winterbourne - The Woodlanders

"You wanted to know what it was that made us human
- well, you're not going to find it in here!  You went looking
in the wrong place!  You know how I  was supposed to feel
-- that person isn't me!  Never was!!"
John Murdoch - Dark City

"God made sin that we might know his mercy."
Marco Venier - Dangerous Beauty


"My perfect partner is me with breasts!"
Frank - Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel, and Laurence

"So you're the littl' lady from London with your smart ways,
eh? I know your sort.  Drain away a man's blood soon as
look at 'im!
Seth Starkadder -  Cold Comfort Farm


"You're the lady and I'm the Jew-boy from the East End.  That's
it isn't it!?"
Mark Gertler- Carrington


"I suppose one gets a habit of doing without happiness
or hope. There are things a man can only go through once
in his life -                               
this experience has happened to me while I'm still young,
that's all.  What I care for more than I can ever care for
anything else is absolutely forbidden me!"
Will Ladislaw - Middlemarch

                                                                                                                    
"You’re at it again---- that stuff ya do, big words, poetry!"
Robbie - A Man Of No Importance

for more quotes from roles Rufus has played, go to Film, Theatre, and Television