Liev Schreiber wants lighter roles

Liev Schreiber doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed as a ”dark guy”.

The ‘Ray Donovan’ actor says he and his Oscar-nominated partner Naomi Watts are all too often labelled for playing complex characters and he is eager to play more light-hearted roles from now on.

He revealed: ”If you’re out hunting Oscars all the day, it can get pretty heavy. Naomi and I are always pigeon-holed as the ‘dark’ guys.

”I’d love to do a kids’ animated movie – that would be great.”

The 46-year-old star also explained he’s not bothered by the negative reaction to 2013’s ‘Movie 43’, a comedy film made up of shorts that he and Watts starred in as a favour to a friend.

Schreiber said: ”It was the project of a mutual friend of Naomi and me. He called us up and asked if we’d do a comedy short for him and without reading a script we both said, ‘Of course.’ We get the script and it was … well, we’d already committed to it.

”It was nice to do something fun together. Sure, it’s not the greatest film ever made, but who cares?”

Schreiber shot to fame in the ‘Scream’ franchise and he is stunned by his success because he only initially had a 20-second appearance in the first movie.

He explained: ”[Producer] Bob Weinstein called me into his office, he said he wanted me to do this thing for him. I’m in $70,000 debt from student loans and I’m looking for a job wherever I can get it. He says all he wants me to do is walk down some stairs and get into a police car. Twenty seconds. Twenty grand.

”I couldn’t believe it. Obviously it turned into a huge phenomenon.”