Top 707 Actor Quotes

I look up to actors. I look up to Robert DeNiro, I look up to Johnny Depp, I look up to Al Pacino, I look up to run-of-the-mill really good actors. I love watching movies, and I love watching other actors and learning from them.

A lot of movie stars are not great actors; they’re just very good-looking. And when they start to age and they don’t have the looks any more, then it’s over.

I have never taken myself that seriously as an actor.

I am truly at my happiest not when I am writing an aria for an actor or making a grand political or social point. I am at my happiest when I’ve figured out a fun way for somebody to slip on a banana peel.

I mean, I enjoy my work as an actor. But to make a difference in people’s lives through advocacy and through supporting research – that’s the kind of privilege that few people will get, and it’s certainly bigger than being on TV every Thursday for half an hour.

Winning an Oscar attracts the attention of directors and other actors and creates a boost in salary, particularly for someone like Halle Berry. For an established star like Denzel Washington, the benefits are less tangible.

I can’t begin to tell you what a pleasure it was to work with Vikram. He is such a brilliant actor and so hassle-free.

Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he’d be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman.

Peter Capaldi is such a brilliant actor, and his Doctor is such a wacky and wonderful character, I can’t wait to see what adventures are in store for him and Bill throughout time and space.

Once you’ve gotten the job, there’s nothing to it. If you’re an actor, you’re an actor. Doing it is not the hard part. The hard part is getting to do it.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don’t dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

‘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.

I try to cast actors willing to believe in the world of the movie, who can make an emotional investment in the world we are creating.

I think, in general, independents don’t have a lot of access to really good scriptwriters or actors or actresses, so they’re very limited in what they can do.

The films you do are not just for the audience. As an actor, you are putting your heart and soul into them.

When you do a play, you have all this time to rehearse and grow into the character. In television, even though you’re waiting and waiting and waiting, once you’re actually on set engaging in the scene with another actor, time is of the essence.

All children are natural actors, and I’m still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.

It’s a long struggle being an actor; I don’t know if I’d ever recommend it to anybody!

As an actor my job is to deliver the best so that the audience not only likes my roles but also remembers them.

I grew up with a tribe of amazing women, but certainly my mother and my godmother really modeled women as actors.

I think that’s why I’m an actor: so I can tell those stories without having to really live through those stories with real consequences and real stakes, real responsibility.

If you want to be an actor today you have to come prepared with the entire package, which includes acting, dancing, action, PR skills, building your physique and all of it. Otherwise, nobody is going to touch you.

It’s a very odd thing with Hollywood, where you do stand-up, you’re good at it, then they go, ‘How would you like to be a horrible actor?’ Then you say, ‘All right, that sounds good. I’ll do that.’

It becomes very easy as an actor to immerse yourself when you’re in the real places.

These actors who were in ‘Dope’ are the actors I want to continue to collaborate and make films with from here on out.

I don’t know how much I have improved as an actor. I think that is a constant process that should happen subconsciously.

I’m a ballplayer, not an actor.

I don’t stay in my trailer. I like to sit in video village, probably to the annoyance of some producers and directors, because they really love to talk about actors, and they can’t in front of me.

You have the massive world that was created by Marvel, and then you have these very intimate actors around you. There was as much character work on this as there would be on a little independent film. So, I felt very fortunate in that sense.

Being an actor: that’s a pretty big net. That’s a big playing field. The Screen Actors’ Guild is filled with many, many, many, many people and vastly different careers.

To have a part that is written for you certainly helps an actor.

I’m an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.

Actors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, they totally immerse themselves in their parts.

There are only so many hilarious actors so when they cross-pollinate, people assume it’s always the same actors and directors.

A lot of times black actors get stuck in a box. They’re up against a lot of limitations for the kind of films that they get approached about. It’s easy to get stuck in a box and just be approached about nothing but urban films.

Today some actors get a little full of themselves about what they’re doing.

I’m a virtuoso in my job in that there’s not an actor I can’t go into a scene with and be absolutely confident that, whatever is required of my character, I can do it.

I got to work with Dustin Hoffman on a film called ‘Billy Bathgate.’ I got to work with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn and Bob Zemeckis on ‘Death Becomes Her.’ There are still a few actors out there that I would like to work with.

In the courtroom, it’s where a lawyer really becomes an actor. There’s a very fine line between delivering a monologue in a play and delivering a monologue to a jury. I’ve always felt that way – I’ve been in a lot of courtrooms. The best lawyers are really theatrical.

Anant Nag and Vishuvardhan sir are two of the best actors with whom I have worked.

The actor creates with his own flesh and blood all those things which all the arts try in some way to describe.

In the Indian film industry, especially those of us who are in mainstream cinema, we invariably play a typical hero’s role. More often than not, we cater to the public perception. However, there is a latent desire in most actors to do a role where you can go all out and experiment.

When we did ‘The Jewel In The Crown,’ we filmed in India first so the actors had an idea of what the heat was like, what it did to you – it slows you down; it’s weighty: the air that you breathe is full of humidity. You are aware of the fact that you’re not in a studio in Manchester.

When it’s all said and done, I am secure enough with my manhood to say to the world, ‘I am a male actor, and its okay for me to play a gay man.’

When they offered me ‘Wayne’s World 2,’ they said: ‘We were going to give this to another actor, then we thought we’d see you’. I just thought: ‘Surely you always had me in mind for that just in the way that it’s written?’, but they never admitted it. It was a wonderful gig to do. Really special.

It’s not a matter of becoming a superstar. Fame and money aren’t the purpose of all this. No actor’s going to say, ‘I don’t want to be famous.’ But the main purpose for doing what I’m doing is the passion in the work.

I feel bad for young actors who become huge stars too quickly, because you haven’t had a chance to practice your craft a lot.

Sandy Hook is a synthetic, completely fake, with actors – in my view, manufactured.

Our kids are growing up with more privilege than we had; that’s true for most of my friends in L.A. I don’t know any actor who grew up with any particular privilege, so everyone wrestles with this. And I think, a lot of times, it’s about being patient with your kids.

The magic doesn’t come from within the director’s mind, it comes from within the hearts of the actors.

Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.

My daughter is the most normal towards me. For her, I am just her mom. I am just a regular mom, and the actor comes after that. If she likes something that I am wearing, she tells me, and if she doesn’t, she still makes it a point to let me know.

As actors we are often seen well-dressed and well-behaved in the public eye but we are humans at the end of the day. Like anyone else we also get angry, upset, frustrated, get mood swings. We are loving, caring too.

I think I probably think about myself as an actor, which is the way most people do. I think I’m good, I don’t think I’m great. I think I would hire somebody else to play me in the movie about me.

Today I divide my day between being actor, producer and distributor, and the monotony is broken.

I was always a closet lover of acting. My mom was very practical. She never, ever restricted our dreams, always told us we could do or be anything. Then I said, ‘Maybe I want to be an actor’. And she said, ‘Maybe not that’.