I’m not in the loop; I don’t know any actors, really, just the ones I work with.
I don’t try to make actors play crazy characters. I like where there’s a certain element of who they are and truth to their performances.
I didn’t set out to make this kind of picture. It just came my way. But its been going on for me for 16 years now and its wonderful for an actor to work consistently. There seems to be an insatiable audience for this type of film.
You just hope that you will get the opportunity to do what you love and pay your bills, and that is being a success as an actor.
My favorite thing about being an actor is that I get to be so many different people in one lifetime. You sort of get to be all of these different characters.
There’s a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.
The best part is it’s a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to be a working actor, and the good part of it… it’s all good! I work long hours, but it’s amazing. They pay me. That’s amazing! I get to kiss Keri Russell, and that ain’t too bad.
Cooking is a great leveller. You can be a sports star, an actor, an entrepreneur, anything, but cooking strips it all away.
The actors in ‘Eight Men Out’ really know how to play, and the background athletes are all professionals.
As an actor, I tend to enjoy going to the dark side.
I don’t like the actors to work together beforehand. I trust my intuition, and I like when the actors are the same.
I’m not a movie star like other actors in the way that I need to walk with a bodyguard.
I get to play a great character while working with great actors and great directors on a great show.
Juilliard was four years, and I called it ‘med school with guaranteed unemployment at the end.’ And it ends: you’re getting ready to go out and be an actor, and… nothing.
There is nothing that I don’t like about being an actor.
I never said that I wanted to be an actor when I was a kid. I didn’t know. I thought I was going to be a singer and musician. That’s what I had been doing, for a huge part of my life.
I’m an actor first and foremost, who happens to do improv. I’ve also done sitcoms, I’ve done stage.
You know, I’ve kind of been lucky enough to always work with established actors or big names or people that are really popular or infamous for doing what they do and doing it well, I guess.
Theatre owners cannot threaten actors with defamation cases and take them to court or seek compensation for losses incurred.
You’d be hard-pressed to find an actor who isn’t a sex symbol somewhere.
Everyone forgets comedians are actors. There’s no question about it. A Robin Williams cannot say the same line every night for 40 weeks and make it sound fresh unless he’s doing an acting job.
I was a child actor in ‘Deliverance,’ but not the banjo player. It was my dad’s big movie as a director, and at the very end there’s a scene where Jon Voight comes home to his wife. I played his young son.
I never thought about becoming an actor. Even when I applied for university, I didn’t choose theater as a major to become an actor.
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?, ‘ I say, ‘Your salary.’
I never try to show an actor what to do or what to say. He has to find out for himself. The role of the director is to guide him to that state, and then to implement it.
I’m so thankful for the Internet because actors and singers and performers now have a way to connect with their fans on a very personal level which I think is quite special.
I think every role you do prepares you for the next one. Of course, ‘Nashville’ has been, and will continue to be, a huge learning experience for me as an actor. It’s something that I grew a lot doing.
To be a good actor you have to be something like a criminal, to be willing to break the rules to strive for something new.
Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.
Back 20 years ago, there was a division between movie actors and TV actors. That’s kind of gone away. People who have had a lot of success in movies in the past now want to be on TV. There used to be much more of a quality division between TV and movies, and that’s kind of not the case anymore.
I want to try and be as involved in the art of filmmaking as possible. I feel that the only way to really do that is to take on as many roles as possible, whether it be as an actor, an editor, a director, a cinematographer.
How many actors have a shot at being a part of something that became a part of pop culture? It’s been very rewarding. I’m not getting the 20 million bucks for the new movies, but at least I’m getting warmth and recognition from people wherever I go.
Representation matters. And it’s about more than just actors on a screen. It’s about snacks, it’s about food, it’s about culture, in every possible way.
What really makes it fun for an actor is when the script is good.
I would love to play an unexpected character. Really raw and simple and not a cliche – something rugged. People like to put actors in boxes.
Old actors never die, they don’t even fade away. They’re always available.
If you’re a lead actor, people are just waiting to say ‘you’re too old’ or ‘you’re too unhip.’ If you’re a supporting actor, you can just work forever.
As an actor with a star status, I can’t restrict myself to one type of films and roles.
You know to me, being a good actor, the most important quality is you’ve got to love to play, and to just be open to anything.
Great actors try to dismiss all ideas from their conscious mind in order to provide an experience that is real.
Though all actors do not make good directors, Dhanush is really one of the finest. He knows exactly how to direct an actor to extract the performance the way he wants it. Perhaps that is happening because he is a performer himself.
I see a lot of actors for whom life becomes one big schedule. I guess I try to be more sensitive to my private life – to take a breath of fresh air and be in the countryside or on a golf course.
I enjoy acting now more than I ever have. I’ve had lots of difficult times when I was younger, but that was all tied up with thwarted ambition. It’s hard being a young actor, because you don’t realise until later that it’s only ever about doing the work.
I’m an actor, but I am an awful liar.
Our stories come from our lives and from the playwright’s pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we create, the artistry of life itself and the quest for peace.
I used to say that I wanted someone cute and nice, an actor too, so he’d get it. But now I think it would be good for me to date someone who’s not in the business.
It’s interesting – a lot of good actors are good mimes. But I’m terrible. If I tried to do an impression, nobody would know what I was doing.
I’ve never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.
I had no intention of being an actor. I was quite good at it. I was pretty capable at other things but never any good at anything.
I’m not someone who enjoys long talks, long rehearsals. I’m very technical: I tell my actors, you come in, you sit down, you pick up a coffee, you look here, you say the line. We try it with the cameras rolling, and if it doesn’t work, we adjust it until it does. It’s very simple.
When you come from a star family in the South, you’re expected to be really good in dance and fights. It’s really important that you open up as an actor in front of the camera.
As an African-American actor, a lot of our stories haven’t been told.
The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation.
An actor has to remember the primary reason why he chose the profession that he did. If every role that I do doesn’t challenge me, then what is the point of being an actor?
It helps for actors if you have one director.
Voice actors I used to know who were starting out in comedy were guys who did a lot of voices. They were usually comedy actors who developed their comedy by doing tons of impressions and voices that were usually very funny. And I never did any of that, so that’s, I guess, why I don’t consider myself a voice actor.
Washington is no place for a good actor. The competition from bad actors is too great.
I used to be very controlling with visuals and editing, and I would pretty much craft the performances; now I have learned to trust the material and the actors.
Having a persona people recognize, it’s the thing that probably gets you paid the most – but it’s also the thing that virtually every actor in the world doesn’t want. ‘Cause, like, no one would believe me if I wanted to play something ultra-realistic, like a gangster or something.
With ‘Stones is His Pockets’ you have effectively a bare stage with two actors and yet a whole world in rural Ireland is created. There’s the countryside, the bar interior, the dressing room and the star’s bedroom.
Nothing is so discouraging to an actor than to have to work for long hours upon hours in brightly lighted interior sets.
Not so much in Canada, but certainly in the US, as I’m sure you know, money is all, and if they can get another 26 programs of the same thing even though it advances the culture or those actor’s careers not at all it doesn’t matter.
