In terms of my actual acting, I don’t really like to to copy anyone or replicate anything that I’ve seen.
I may not have made humongous sum of money through acting, but I have enough to lead a stress free life.
Acting is my passion, and Chelsea FC is my hobby.
Having an interview in English is difficult for me, but acting in English is much harder. Because when I’m acting in English, if someone points out bad pronunciation or accent, I cannot focus on my emotions anymore, so it was very hard.
I learn a new thing every single day about acting, about directing, about producing.
I started acting because I enjoyed school plays.
I went to UGA for a quarter. One quarter of my extended university life. I enjoyed it. UGA was a blast. I crashed all the frat parties, dressing like a frat boy, acting like I was one of them. I had too much fun. So I had a good time for the quarter that I was a Bulldog. Go Bulldogs!
On holidays, I spent time alone at home watching a movie, reading a book, and contemplating. Now that I think about it, if I hadn’t had that time, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do acting.
Leadership is the other side of the coin of loneliness, and he who is a leader must always act alone. And acting alone, accept everything alone.
My life has been very much a roller coaster ride. Not just the boxing part, not just the acting part, just my childhood, what I was into at a young age and the things I was exposed to, it’s just very abnormal.
Acting is acting at the end of the day. How does it matter if it is in films or on TV?
Having been an actor and a writer for so long – 20 years or so – I felt that it would be daft to go to one’s grave without having directed. It’s a natural extension of writing and acting, and so I knew it would happen one day.
It’s funny – when I started acting, I didn’t know I was going to be talking about Asian-American issues so much. You know what, though? It just comes with the territory, being ethnic.
In my early days, I used to go to many acting gurus, Asha Chandra and Roshan Taneja being two of them.
Playing basketball is second nature to me; acting I found far more challenging.
Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information. It is a creative human activity, its geniuses acting more as artists than as information processors.
Acting job can create a fantasy or stereotype for others. That’s why we try not to show our personal lives so much.
It was a sort of weird, troubled road into acting because I had been a bit naughty in school until I did my Highers, and then I was like, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to apply myself and surprise everyone.’
I think that acting could be a talent.
Acting by yourself is pretty darn hard, especially having to do physical comedy.
Never stand still. Only stand still enough to learn, and once you stop learning in that stance, move off. Always keep yourself engaged, in theater, in whatever job you can get. If you can’t get an acting job, then go backstage. Or take tickets. But be around actors because that is where you will primarily learn.
With ‘Taxi Driver,’ I had this eureka moment. I realized that acting could be much more than what I had been doing. I had to build a character that wasn’t me.
I never wanted to be an actress. Acting wasn’t in my mind. It wasn’t in my calculations.
Law is downstream from culture. By the time you make a law about something, you’re reacting, not acting. I’d rather shape the culture.
My acting technique is to look up at God just before the camera rolls and say, ‘Give me a break.’
I’m one of five; I have three sisters, so I’ve always had three best girlfriends. Actually, I’m the middle child, so it’s no surprise I went into acting! There’s a need to be seen.
I started out as a writer and a director. I started acting because I wanted to know how to relate to the actors. When people ask me what I do, I don’t really say that I’m an actor, because actors often wait for someone to give them roles.
I can do everything with ease on the stage, whereas in real life I feel too big and clumsy. So I didn’t choose acting. It chose me.
It’s tough when take 1 is technically okay and take 2 has better acting. Out here (Hollywood) they print the first one. That’s the one where we all hit the mark on the floor and who cares about the acting.
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
I love the idea of metamorphosing and changing, the legalized insanity of acting.
A lot of film acting is about being casual.
Acting is a passion, but I have been taking time off to direct once in a while because it helps me reinvent myself.
Making films has never just been a job to me; it is my life. I have some interests outside of acting – I sing and I’ve written books, for instance – but acting is what keeps me going: it’s what I do; it gives life purpose.
When I was young, my parents made me listen to old music and watch Jimmy Durante. I fell in love with the whole mystique of acting and entertainment.
Acting is a plum gig, and then animation is an even more plum gig.
Hypocrisy is not a way of getting back to the moral high ground. Pretending you’re moral, saying you’re moral is not the same as acting morally.
Literally, I think I’ve quit acting three or four times, only for a few days. Maybe for a few weeks.
What I enjoy most is travelling to different places and meeting new people. For me, it’s all about life experiences, and I’m very grateful that acting allows me so many interesting and fulfilling ones.
When you start so young working, you build a hunger for acting, working, and a busy life.
I loved music, acting, and drama, but these weren’t something I pursued until I was 19.
I would not want compliments that ‘I can do different roles’. I want compliments that whatever I did, I did nicely. That’s how I see acting.
I met my agent when I was 10 years old on a family skiing vacation. He asked if I was interested in acting, and I had been doing school plays. A couple of years later, I called him up, and I started auditioning.
Acting is a career where you keep learning with every film you do.
Acting is the most personal of our crafts. The make-up of a human being – his physical, mental and emotional habits – influence his acting to a much greater extent than commonly recognized.
Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.
Acting is such a personal thing, which is weird because at the same time it’s not. It’s for the consumption of other people. But in terms of creative outlets and expressing yourself, it’s just the most extreme version of that that I’ve ever found. It’s like running, it’s exertion.
Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.
Acting changed my life. I say God and then acting. Because becoming an actor, I’ve gained a new respect for humanity. And I believe that it’s also helped me to grow as a person. It’s been one of the biggest blessings and expressions that I could have ever been gifted with.
I will work hard at honing my acting and singing.
I don’t even draw on my life experiences when I’m acting. I just try and make it feel like I’m living through that person’s skin.
When I started acting almost 50 years ago, it wasn’t about fame. It was about acting.
I have enjoyed acting, but getting into production is hectic. I am not made for it.
I love acting, but I have two little kids, and it’s 14 hours a day out of the house. You don’t get that time back.
There is nothing that living things do that cannot be understood from the point of view that they are made of atoms acting according to the laws of physics.
Making a film or doing a play are completely different experiences and entirely fulfilling, but completely unique. I also think one complements the other. People often say that theater is about flexing your muscles, and is actually real acting, whereas I sort of disagree.
I’m an actress. It’s my passion. It’s – I’ve always lived for acting.
T.V. acting is a great skill to have, and it’s nice to have that stability.
‘She’s Gotta Have It’ and ‘School Daze,’ I really didn’t know what I was doing. And the biggest indicator of that was the acting. ‘Do the Right Thing’ was like the first film where I really felt comfortable working with actors.
Once, Naseeruddin Shah told me that the wafer shop was the best acting school that I could have attended. And I completely agree. I observed every customer very minutely and picked up some quirk or the other. Later, I used those experiences while playing different characters.
In acting, I always try to go back to what would actually be the real situation, the real human behavior in life.
I think good acting results when working together in a comfortable environment.
I have a fine level of recognition in the business and among the acting community now, so I consider myself one of the lucky ones. If I didn’t think that, there would be something wrong with me. I’m grateful and thankful for what I’ve got.
I don’t hate myself anymore. I used to hate my work, hated that sexy image, hated those pictures of me onstage, hated that big raunchy person. Onstage, I’m acting the whole time I’m there. As soon as I get out of those songs, I’m Tina again.
