It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a movie. It was one of the happiest times in my life. I was living in New York, and I really enjoyed acting at the time. Also, it’s funny because that was also the time when I went downhill.
The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.
I was not thinking about getting into acting in any way.
It’s important to have people around you with enough confidence to say if you are not acting in a good way. Normally, when you are at the top, people say everything is fantastic. Probably in that moment it is what you want to hear, but it’s best to be reminded how to act properly.
If you don’t wake up and have your own thing, whether it’s writing or reading or traveling or acting or dancing or singing or being a mother or a father, something that drives you, then it’s all worth nothing. One of the key elements in happiness is purpose.
In a work capacity I’m only interested in acting and producing.
What’s been nice is that I’ve been able to direct from a very idealistic place. I’ve never had to make my living as a director, which gave me a chance to choose material I feel passionate about. The directing allows me to not have to grab any acting role that comes along. I can pick and choose a little bit.
If you’re small and can speak clearly and you’re a cute kid, that’s the craft, really. The whole child actor thing can be dangerous sometimes. Other kids were taking piano lessons; I did ballet and acting.
I don’t know what that Method is. Acting is life, to me, and should be.
We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we’re in the present, but we aren’t. The present we know is only a movie of the past.
Being in an acting class, you always feel like, you know, you’re insecure, a lot of ways, when the teacher is commenting on your performance.
I would want the audience to simply see the character I portray in each movie in its true essence because I feel acting is all about truthfully portraying the character.
Nothing gives me more pleasure than acting. But I don’t enjoy going for award functions or giving interviews.
Acting is happy agony.
I went to a school called Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. I went because initially I was very naughty, and my mom thought if I was busy, I’d be better. And I didn’t really do acting until later on in the school, with an amazing teacher. I left, went traveling, came back.
I like the character roles. Somewhere back there I really came to the conclusion in my mind that the difference between acting and stardom was major. And that if you become a star, people are going to go to see you. If you remain an actor, they’re going to go and see the story you’re in.
Be it a cameo, a character role or a lead role, I am happy that people are finally recognising my acting calibre and are casting me in their films.
John Ventimiglia, who was on ‘The Sopranos,’ was in my first acting class and we have been friends since that time. Alec Baldwin was in my class back then, Sean Young and Andrew McCarthy.
Coming back to a television series puts you back in the limelight and gives you a platform for your ideas. If you’re not acting on a series, you don’t get the ability to communicate to people.
It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man’s insecurity before himself and before nature.
I would say that Emma Stone and Emma Watson are two very talented young actresses who are very intelligent and have a great sense of humor and have learned to balance what they love with their acting career, and I think that’s really a great thing.
To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.
I’ve always said that I’ve been acting my whole life, and everyone always told me, ‘you should be an actress professionally.’ I’ve heard that my whole life, so it’s kind of cool to think, ‘yeah, they were right.’ I can do this and I’m good at it, and that feels really good.
Acting is a tough industry. There are a lot of kids out there at drama schools and not a lot of money about, especially as the arts are being cut.
I took a break from acting for a little bit, came back, and didn’t know how it was going to be, but I had so much fun. I really had, like, a reinvention, a renewal.
I’ve always been a creative person since I was young. I enjoyed art, museums, plays, but it wasn’t until I was about 10 that my mother encouraged me to choose a career, and it was acting.
I realized that acting was the thing I was still maybe the best at. Of the things I felt like I was good at, that was the thing that came the most naturally to me.
There’s so much crap attached to acting: the fame aspect, the ego aspect, the ‘Am I good, am I bad, am I being judged, who likes me, who doesn’t like me…’
The nature of the human mind is such that unless it is stimulated by images of things acting upon it from without, all remembrance of them passes easily away.
Acting is very physical, even when it doesn’t appear to be. It’s about the arc of your body’s language through a film.
I make video art pieces, take photographs, and dabble in acting ever since my screen test for ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ with Steven Spielberg. But music is my first love and always will be my priority.
Acting means living, it’s all I do and all I’m good at. If I weren’t getting paid well, I would still be acting in a small troupe somewhere.
Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.
I think it’s a falsehood to think you can have some kind of plan. Acting isn’t like that, it’s more vocational, I think.
Writing, of course, is writing, acting comes from the theater, and cinematography comes from photography. Editing is unique to film. You can see something from different points of view almost simultaneously, and it creates a new experience.
When people call me God, I say, no, I’m still an angel or saint of acting. I still have a long way to go.
The worst acting is about imitation.
The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
Acting is a tough business, and the percentage of people who make it is very low – it’s about 1 percent.
I love acting.
I had taken an acting class at Berkeley – I was on the track team, and a friend of mine on the team said, ‘You should take an acting class. It’s just like recess.’ So I viewed it as a simple credit.
I don’t really want to do movies, but I tried. I don’t feel like acting is my thing; I think music is my strong area.
Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.
There’s nothing more boring than unintelligent actors, because all they have to talk about is themselves and acting. There have to be other things.
I’m always thinking I’m messing up. I did a lot of classes. I can’t stand being on stage or the only one talking in a room, so class really helped me deal with that. It doesn’t really get any easier, but it helps you focus on the acting.
I’ve always enjoyed acting. When we were younger, my sisters and I would put on plays for our parents.
I’m not a Method actor. I don’t believe acting should be psychodrama. I look within myself and see what I can find to play the role with. If I’m playing a blind man, I don’t go around blindfolded for days. A lot of good actors would, but I don’t go in for that very much. I like to just make it up as I go along.
At the end of the day, stand-up comedy is like acting when the audience are the other characters that I’m acting with.
Good acting is good acting, however you learn it. Some people who haven’t studied are amazing. Some people like Leonardo DiCaprio are naturally gifted – he’s learned technique by working with people early on.
It was some great times and some great moments… I’m proud to be a WWE alumni. If it wasn’t for my time there, there’s no way I’d be excelling at Fox and acting.
Acting is a learning process. And what you are doing in your early films is essentially picking up the nuances, the tricks of your trade. And somewhere along the line, you become analytical and learn to enjoy what you are doing.
Strive to be authentic all the time. That’s sort of my philosophy on life, which applies to acting.
Dane DeHaan, certainly, is kind of the best friend I’ve made through acting, in terms of another actor. He’s fantastic.
Give me a chance to prove myself because there’s nothing that I love more than acting. I feel a sense of responsibility towards anyone who feels that I don’t deserve to be here as there are so many others struggling to get into films.
Though acting offers would keep coming and going, and I would pick up only the ones that I find good, my hands are literally full with candles… I can’t think beyond them.
I left school and couldn’t find acting work, so I started going to clubs where you could do stand-up. I’ve always improvised, and stand-up was this great release. All of a sudden, it was just me and the audience.
