I respond in the moment which is what makes me a good actor.
But I was always an actor, and I kept telling myself that there will be a day when I will become a good actor.
You want to play another kind of character in another genre, and it’s been something I’ve been trying to do if I can in the career so far, and it’s something I hope to continue because it’s interesting to me and you get to do different things as an actor.
The biggest enemy of any actor is fear.
I never once dreamed of sort of being able to be in an American TV series, you know? It was all about theater and touring and sort of being an actor around Scottish theater.
Every time I work, it’s an educational process because I learn by watching other actors. My career is always going to be an ongoing study.
When they asked Jack Benny to do something for the Actor’s Orphanage – he shot both his parents and moved in.
I’m an actor who they said was wrinkled and balding and everything else when I was in my early 30’s. Most of the people who wrote that who thought they were younger than me are now bald and wrinkled.
Actors always start with the voice and language. That’s wrong. They should start with the body. The body is an actor’s most important resource.
The pleasure from acting comes from having great writing to work with. If it’s well written and the character is interesting, then, as an actor, that’s the raw material I need.
I started to think maybe I could become an actor, but I didn’t have the confidence.
If you are worried about what people think of you, you should go into politics. Real actors take chances.
I feel that God has been amazingly kind to me. How many actors get to stay for 30 years and play the kind of roles that I have done?
I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don’t be afraid to do what your instincts tell you. You may not get the part, but people will take notice.
For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment and renewal… has always been the work of other actors.
I don’t believe that directors need to essentially manipulate actors into doing things. You can suffer for your art, and you can make your own self suffer for your art. You don’t need anyone else to do it for you. I work best when there’s a safety trampoline of kindness.
They say that theater is the actor’s medium, television is the writer’s medium and film is the director’s medium, and it’s really true.
But I’m not a tough guy or a street fighter for real. I’m just an actor.
Why do I use the same actors in different movies? One of the things I really stress in casting is I need to find someone who is suitable for the role in the movie. That’s always the main reason.
Good evening, ladies and gentleman. My name is Orson Welles. I am an actor. I am a writer. I am a producer. I am a director. I am a magician. I appear onstage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?
We were fortunate that most of the ‘1666’ stuff we did shoot all together. We were filming out in Hampton, Georgia. It was so amazing. They built a village for us to shoot in. It made our job as actors so much easier.
I’ve been fortunate. I’ve worked in a lot of things where I had those kinds of experiences with actors who were perceived as very macho guys, everybody from Lee Marvin to Charlie Bronson to Harrison Ford to Robert Shaw.
I’m not an activist, I’m an actor. I don’t want to be an activist.
I love to choose the right actors. It’s kind of a pleasure to work with them and watch them imbue your concepts that you write.
When you are working, be the director’s and producer’s actor. Value their time and money, be punctual, disciplined, and don’t misuse perks that you get as an actor.
I’m wide open to getting married, but actors are not easy people to date. You end up sharing that person with this other mistress that is their career. I very much like the traditional courtship method of making a date. That’s what they do in normal places, but Hollywood’s not normal.
It’s cool to be nervous, and how the nerves come out sideways. That’s why some actors scream their heads off, or it comes out in their hair.
I’m an actor in between jobs right now, so I kind of live the life of a 7-year old.
Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.
I’m an actor, I’m not a politician.
I tried my hand in action films, and now I am back to love stories, as people like to see me as a lover boy! But as an actor, I want to try all genres.
I think it’s important for an actor to see the work they’ve done because every time you revisit a work you come up with a new way of improving it. It’s a good way to brush up your craft and your skills, so I think it’s a good thing to do, keep seeing your films.
One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else’s shoes. And when I look at the roles I’ve played, I’m kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I’ve had and the different things I’ve learned.
Backstage life is terrific training for an actor, seeing shows from the wings.
The actor in me would always like to be more dashing, or slimmer, or have nicer hair.
I have an immense amount of respect for acting. I’ve always loved movies and was always fascinated by movie-making. But to become an actor, I wanted to commit myself.
Acting with creatures that aren’t there is kind like acting with an actor who refuses to come out of his trailer. You still have to go on and do the scene.
To be honest, I am a really simple person, and most of my friends are not from the industry. I am most comfortable with them. They don’t treat me as an actor, and neither would they tolerate me behaving like one.
On buses and trains, I always think about the inexhaustible variety of human genes. We see types, and occasionally twins, but never doubles. All faces are unique, and this is exhilarating, despite the increasingly plastic similarity of TV stars and actors.
My advice to young actors is probably to do some theatre; definitely do that. I keep running into these actors who have never been on stage, and it’s invaluable for an actor. What you will learn about yourself is huge.
I’m no actor. And I wasn’t like George Lucas or Spielberg, making home movies as a teenager, either. But I would go back and watch certain movies again and again. By the time I saw ‘The Graduate’ I was aware of how these amazing stories could be told.
I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.
To be a character actor is to be open, to be a chameleon.
I’m not saying that Sam J. Jones was Flash Gordon – there’s no such thing. No actor can be the person, that’s a bunch of crap. People pay to see an actor be himself, whether he plays Hamlet or whatever.
It makes me feel good that I can now sit there and go, I’ve worked with Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, all the great actors that I’ve worked with… Sir Ben Kingsley.
There’s a personal me, there’s an actor me and there’s a star me.
Actors cannot choose the manner in which they are born. Consequently, it is the one gesture in their lives completely devoid of self-consciousness.
Everything shifted for me after ‘Rush.’ It wasn’t as financially successful as other things I’d done, but it gave me more movement, more options, more doors opening, more meetings. All of a sudden, it’s, ‘Oh, wow! You’re an actor!’
When I’m working with Red One, we all have to do everything, from making sets and costumes to tearing tickets. Forget about craft services! So when I get on a film set, it’s a thrill to be just working as an actor.
You respect all of these people that you know in the business as actors. And they sort of turn around and say, we really like your work. It’s a nice acknowledgment.
I don’t know a single actor who is not picky.
An actor’s body should be full of emotions, whether it is happiness or sorrow, pain or joy, enraged or elated.
As a cinematographer or director, I’m always looking for projects that are able to say a lot with the actor’s expressions.
The only thing we don’t do together is get in front of an actor and show any indecision at all about what we think. We don’t always agree, so we meet privately, then one or the other will approach the actor.
You know, working as an actor, I’m always working within my own imagination.
I don’t want to be known as someone who is deliberately trying to do things that are not commercial! That is not a good reputation to have when you’re trying to be a working actor.
Don’t pretend to know everything. I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of veteran actors, and I soak up lessons from them like a sponge.
As an actor, the biggest compliment you can get, in my book is for someone to believe that you’re the character.
I didn’t want to be a comedian. I wanted to be an actor – maybe a comic actor, but a real actor – by real, I mean not a comedian. I wanted to be an actor.
In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.
I know that some actors and directors like to have intensity on set. I don’t, particularly. Certainly, if they want that, that’s fine, but I can’t work like that.
When you get to work with a good director, an actor’s job gets reduced to half.
