211 Acting Quotes

I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.

To be a character who feels a deep emotion, one must go into the memory's vault and mix in a sad memory from one's own life.

A lot of girls ask for advice on how to get into acting, and I'm kind of the worst person to ask, because it just kind of fell in my lap... I was just in the right place at the right time.

Acting is not pretending or lying. It's finding a side of yourself that's the character and ignoring your other sides. And there's a side of me that wonders what's wrong with being completely honest.

I don't think of myself as a character actress - that's become a phrase which means you've had it.

People often become actresses because of something they dislike about themselves: They pretend they are someone else.

Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies.

It was only when I realized how actors have the power to move people that I decided to pursue acting as a career.

God felt sorry for actors, so he gave them a place in the sun and a lot of money. All they had to sacrifice was their talent.

I've always believed that acting is instinct to start with; you either have it or you don't.

My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.

I know that if I'd had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn't have got anywhere. You don't take exams for acting, you take your courage.

If you're an actor, a real actor, you've got to be on the stage. But you mustn't go on the stage unless it's absolutely the only thing you can do.

Actresses are such very dull people off the stage. We are only delightful and brilliant when we are doing what we are told to do. Off stage we are awful chumps.

He played the King as though under momentary apprehension that someone else was about to play the ace.

[Malipiero's advice to Casanova.] If you wish your audience to cry, you must shed tears yourself, but if you wish to make them laugh you must contrive to look as serious as a judge.

As far as I could discover, the notion that a play could succeed without any further help from the actor than a simple impersonation of his part never occurred to Tree.

It's a slight stretch of the imagination but most people are alike in most ways so I've never had any trouble identifying with the character that I'm playing.

I'm in the business of helping stories get told, and I love this story. People don't say to me, When you were in Proof, were you afraid to play a mathematician? Or, Was it scary to play a Marine in Jarhead? Why is that?

I like drama. I love being in a drama where I get to be the funny guy. That's what I really love the most.

Great acting is being able to create a character. Great character is being able to be yourself.

I started when I was three years old, doing commercials and Modeling in New York, I liked it so much that I kept doing it.

In movies, I hope women aren't always portrayed as sex symbols. People like Drew Barrymore are paving the way for girls my age. Hopefully I can pave the way for young actresses, too.

I wish I'd never been an actor. I'd rather have been a streetwalker, selling my body, than selling my tears and my laughter, my grief and my joy.

Acting is the physical representation of a mental picture and the projection of an emotional concept.

Beautiful women seldom want to act. They are afraid of emotion and they do not try to extract anything from a character that they are portraying, because in expressing emotion they may encourage crow's feet and laughing wrinkles. They avoid anything that will disturb their placidity of countenance, for placidity of countenance insures a smooth skin.

Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we want to hide something or pretend, we're acting. Most people do it all day long.

The close-up says everything, it's then that an actor's learned, rehearsed behavior becomes most obvious to an audience and chips away, unconsciously, at its experience of reality. In a close-up, the audience is only inches away, and your face becomes the stage.

Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis.

If you're successful, acting is about as soft a job as anybody could ever wish for. But if you're unsuccessful it's worse than having a skin disease.

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.

I was terrorized by the emotional requirements of being an actor. Acting is like letting your pants down; you're exposed.

I wasn't driven to acting by any inner compulsion. I was running away from the sporting goods business.

I'd like to quit the supernatural roles and play just an interesting, down-to-earth person.

Katharine Hepburn delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B.

Groucho Marx is the only actor I ever allowed to ad-lib in a show I wrote. That was because I couldn't stop him.

I love acting. Oh, God, I love it. But all this fame and all this bullshit attention. I'm not supernatural. I've done nothing extremely special to deserve the position. It happens every couple of years, and it's happened to hundreds of people before me.

I'm the worst auditioner, really, really bad. I mean, you're being judged and I'm just so aware of it that it consumes me. I can't relax, I'm tied in knots, so the voice is very taut and tense. You're so aware that you're acting 'cause you're sitting across from this lady with a piece of paper who's going, I'm. Going. To. Shoot. You. If. You. Don't. Blah, blah, blah, in this emotionless voice. It's foul. I hate it.

I don't have a technique. I've never been a believer in having one set technique on how to act. There are no rules and there is no rulebook. At the end of the day, it all comes down to my instincts. That's the one thing that guides me through every decision professionally. Socially, also. That's my technique. Yeah, you read through the script 100 times. I guess I have little characteristics about myself. Sometimes, most often than not, once we start shooting I won't look at the script at all until we finished shooting. It's kind of like it's been imprinted in my head during rehearsals. You just let it go.

You know when you see the preachers down South? And they grab a believer and they go, 'Bwoom! I touch you with the hand of God!' And they believe so strongly, they're on the ground shaking and spitting. And fuck's sake, that's the power of belief. Now, I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe in my performance. And if you can understand that the power of belief is one of the great tools of our time and that a lot of acting comes from it, you can do anything.

I actually hate comic book movies, like fucking hate them, they just bore me shitless and they're just dumb. But I thought what Chris Nolan did with Batman was actually really good, really well directed, and Christian Bale was really great in it.

Between the choreographers and me, we kind of played with it. We wanted a bit of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire influence. It was totally choreographed and then I just made it sloppy.

The challenge was to capture the stillness of him. I have kind of semi-frantic, nervous energy. Harnessing that was something I thought I'd have to work out. Shooting in the wilderness, the stillness became like this innate quality.

The Joker, so far, is definitely the most fun I've had with any character. He's just out of control - no empathy, he's a sociopath, uh, a psychotic, mass-murdering clown. And, uh, I'm just thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying it. It's just exceeded any expectations I had of what the experience would be like.

I think Heath has a natural screen presence, he has a focus that distinguishes him from a lot of young actors. There's a depth and intelligence that is operating that's not only there, but also focused into what he is doing, being clear in what the role is, about what he's trying to achieve with it, this brings a balance with the other cast who are considerably more experienced than him in most cases, that's very important for the story to work. Without that, we would lose center, he brings that focus.

He's awesome! He's really, really charming, sexy, and just himself and natural, and he made it very easy for me to work with him.

It was a very great challenge for Heath. He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic.

He was a captivating person. [His] performance in Brokeback Mountain is beautiful. Every time you saw that guy on screen you just wanted to watch him. And it's sad, just sad that he's gone. Too young. Too young.

I don't necessarily want to always play the leading man - I'd like to shave my head and sew my eyeballs shut. (1988)

I was broke and Nic [Cage] asked me if I needed a job. I did and he told me I should try acting. (1988)

I never really had an interest in it in the beginning. Nicolas Cage -we had some mutual friends - introduced me to his agent. She sent me to a casting director, and I auditioned for the first Nightmare on Elm Street. I got the job. I was stupefied. They paid me all that money for a week. It was luck, and accident. I did it purely to pay the rent. I was literally filling out job applications at the time, any kind of job. Nic Cage said, ' You should try being an actor. Maybe you are one and don't know it.' I began acting, and I thought, Well, this is an interesting road; maybe I should keep traveling on it. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I started to read everything about acting-Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen, Michael Chekhov. I started soaking it up.

For a lot of years, I was really freaked out. Maybe I took it all too seriously, you know? I was freaked out about being turned into a product. That really used to bug me. Now, more and more, I enjoy the process. Creating a character, working that character into a scene, into the movie. I mean, the last couple of things have been just a ball. (2004)

I began acting, and I thought, Well, this is an interesting road; maybe I should keep traveling on it. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, so I started to read everything about acting - Stanislavsky, Uta Hagen, Michael Chekhov. I started soaking it up. (2004)

[Brando's] maybe the greatest actor of the last two centuries. But his mind is much more important than the acting thing. The way that he looks at things, doesn't judge things, the way that he assesses things. He's as important as, uh, who's important today? Jesus, not many people... Stephen Hawking! (1995)

usic was huge for me. I loved playing the guitar and playing in a band and just hanging out with guys who loved music and pretty much felt the same way about school and life that I did. Even though I knew at one point that I would never be a great guitar player, I still loved the freedom that came from playing in a band. My band was good enough to open for Iggy Pop and that was a wild time for us. Music was the thing that got me out of pumping gas and indirectly led me into acting. (2004)

The term 'serious actor' is kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? [Like] 'Republican Party' or 'airplane food.'

Acting is one of the lesser skills man can possess. Honestly, Shirley Temple was doing it when she was four years old!

Acting is the perfect idiot's profession.

When I started out, I didn't have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous.

'Mani Madhava Chakyar's forte was Satwikabhinaya. Endowed with expressive eyes; that can speak a thousand moods and a countenance that can reflect the range of human emotions in its entirety, Mani Madhava Chakkiar was the master at work' - Mani Madhava Chakkyar: The Master at Work (film)[10]

'Eyes, what an eloquent pair he has! He is able to express with them even the slightest difference in the mood' - L.S Rajagopalan (noted art critic)[11]

'(I got introduced to) the late and great Mani Madhava Cakyar's King Udayana in Svapnavasavadatta. In what may have been among his last performances on the public stage I was fortunate to see Sri Cakyar, who at an advanced age, literally threw away his walking stick as he entered the stage to become a sprightly royal lover pining away for his beloved Vasavadatta. At his home in Likkadi he demonstrated the nava rasas... Sri Cakyar vividly illustrated to me that kutiyattam acting has the power to transform even the oldest person into the character he portrays' - Prof. Farley P. Richmond (Expert on Indian theatre), Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Georgia.[13]

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting; 'Twas only that when he was off he was acting.

From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.

I think acting is something that I want to make sure that, if I do make that transition, I want to make sure that it's really dramatic, and put my energy into acting, you know, fully instead of trying to balance a whole lot of things at once, 'cause I really don't want to become one of those singer-trying-to-be-actor-but-didn't-really-work kind of thing.

Is that what he said? Is that what he said? He can talk! No, it's true. I'm terrible. Do you know what? I've got quite an easy job. I've just got to look at people, say lines and not laugh. And two of those I do okay-ish. But basically I'm just shit at quite an ordinary job, namely not laughing. It's not that hard not to laugh. The guy who sold me my travel card, he didn't wet himself laughing. You just don't do it.

When I came to faith, I thought I would have to stop being an actor, because it's all about artifice and manipulation. But we're living in a world where God doesn't really have an influence, unless it's fundamentalists, so I'll always be an outsider because of my faith. And when you think about it, faith and acting are all about stories, so the two are not mutually exclusive.

'Oh, nobody would ever want to know me in Hollywood. I'm far too puffin-faced for that, too weird-looking. No, I think I'll probably stick to telly, if telly'll have me, though I wouldn't mind doing radio plays as well.'

I am obviously different from people in the past. I am, obviously, older and I have been in the music business for a little while as an actor, a singer and whatnot. Hopefully, I bring a

More happens in her face in 10 seconds than happens in most women's faces in 10 years. ~ Arthur Penn

My name is..Count........Dracula

But we play bad guys in Hollywood movies, like, take, uh, The Empire Strikes Back from the Star Wars trilogy. The Death Star - just full of British actors opening doors and going: 'Oh, I'm : oh : oh.' 'What is it, Lieutenant Sebastian?' 'It's just the rebels, sir. They're here.' 'My God, man! Do they want tea?' 'No, I think they're after something more than that, sir. I don't know what it is, but they've brought a flag.' 'Damn! That's dashed cunning of them! Ah, Lord Vader!' [hollow breath] 'Uh : hello?' Because he was only impressive because he had that James Earl Jones voice: [deep voice] 'I'm : I am Vader. The force is strong with you.' If he had a much more [high wimpy voice]: ''Ello! Look, I'm Lord Vader, and just pay a-bloody-ttention, all right? Luke, Luke, the force is strong with you.' 'Is it?' 'Yeah.' 'Well, who told you that?' 'Uh, s-some bloke. Yeah, he said the force is really rather strong with you.' 'Well, how strong?' 'Uh, as strong as a small pony.' 'Oh, that's quite strong, that is.' Film would never have fuckin' worked, would it?

Jack's a great musician, and I'm a great actor. It takes a great actor to say Jack Benny is a great musician. ~ Bob Hope

Green Wing (series 1) playing Dr. Caroline Todd

Black Books playing Fran Katzenjammer

The Archers playing Debbie Aldridge

I do not drink...wine!