In those days I was mortified, because I was a serious actor in my own mind, and then all of a sudden I’m this hunk.
In every shoot, between the actor and the director there is manipulation. I’m not saying that negatively. It’s healthy.
An actor is something less than a man, while an actress is something more than a woman.
I’m not Meryl Streep. My God – she’s the greatest actor that ever lived. It’s sad that ordinary actors like me are compared to her.
All this focus on my private life is the most unappealing aspect of being an actor. I don’t like it, but it goes with the territory, and I have to put up with it. I certainly don’t set out to attract attention.
Aparshakti has his own journey, and as a sibling, I can only wish him good luck. I would also love to work with him as an actor.
I think I’ve been lucky, being my frequent appearances on Court TV have brought to me another level than just the actor guy.
I went to Northampton College of Further Education. I left there – when I was 16, I left Kingsthorpe Upper – and I went and did a diploma in performing arts, so it was my start in the training process to becoming an actor.
I had worked with many actors who were angry at times and often found them to be tense.
As a fortysomething actor, you reach a plateau of maturity from which you can really get stuck in.
Good actors, you always know what they’re thinking. That’s why they’re good actors.
I’m so lucky to have the opportunity to work with some directors and some actors I wouldn’t have dared to think I would work with one day.
Vetrimaaran expects his actors to be spontaneous. Since he mostly prefers shooting in live locations, you have to be prepared for everything when you work with him.
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.
‘Heirs’ is really a good drama. Everyone put out their heart and soul into this series, from the actors to the whole staff. That’s why I think we won awards for this drama.
It’s funny, because there are so many stereotypes out there about actors and movie stars in general, but I’ve had a great opportunity to meet a lot of them, and maybe it’s just because they don’t behave that way around me, but I rarely see that kind of abuse of power.
If I’d had the choice when I was 14, and someone had said to me, ‘You can either be a footballer or an actor,’ I’d have said: ‘Well, can’t I be a footballing actor?’
I’ve always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it’s like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That’s the actor’s craft – using yourself to create a character.
It’s such a stressful environment, I find, being an actor, being put in the chair and ‘Touch this, that, and the other,’ it’s too much for me. I find it hard to tolerate that sort of stuff. If you’re not enjoying it, don’t do it. You’re wasting everyone’s time.
I had done some flimflam movies, but I didn’t understand what being an actor meant anymore.
My father is a South African actor who danced in broadway musicals for ‘Lion King.’
When my mother got home from work, she would take me to the movies. It was her way of getting out, and she would take me with her. I’d go home and act all the parts. It had a tremendous influence on my becoming an actor.
I heard I am one of the most representative bachelor actors of Korea with Kang Dong Won, So Ji Sub, and Hyun Bin.
Heath Ledger’s performance in ‘The Dark Knight’ quite simply changed the game. He raised the bar not just for actors in superhero films, but young actors everywhere; for me. His performance was dark, anarchic, dizzying, free, and totally, thrillingly, dangerous.
As an actor, I’m attracted to drama; as a director, it’s humor – because it’s the story of my life, and I can’t be that serious about it. Being alone is a big theme in all my movies, both as a director and as an actress.
I have the cliche ‘struggling actor’ story. I was waiting tables in New York, went out to L.A. soon after graduation to get some jobs, but it didn’t work out. I wanted to cut my teeth in professional theater, so I came back to New York. It made my journey a longer one, but I really wanted to excel in the theater.
We will need to reach out to all those actors – to governments, to civil societies, to businesses – and help in mobilizing them to help in this fight against climate change.
As an actor, what’s interesting is what’s hidden away beneath the surface. You want to be like a duck on a pond – very calm on the surface but paddling away like crazy underneath.
It is important to keep the filmmakers interested in you so they can offer you everything and anything. We actors are not given work on the basis of audience poll; the filmmaker will cast you after they see and like your work. It is essential to do different kind of films and not get typecast.
As I grew older, I realised that Bruce Lee was an actor first and a martial artist second. If he wasn’t a convincing actor and didn’t have the emotion in his eyes before delivering a kick or a punch, it wouldn’t have made that much of an impact.
As an actor, the first thing you learn in drama school is you never judge.
With any actor, if you know your character well enough, you’ll know pretty much what he would say under any circumstance, or whatever situation might rear its head.
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.
There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor.
By being a waiter 100 percent, I think I was a lot like any other actor in New York. I had credits because I’d work lunches during the week, and then on a Wednesday would go be lucky enough to be in a movie like ‘Kinsey.’
From a Buddhist point of view, emotions are not real. As an actor, I manufacture emotions. They’re a sense of play. But real life is the same. We’re just not aware of it.
It’s very strange: I watch a lot of interviews with other actors that I know saying, ‘Oh we had a great time; we’re best buddies,’ and I know for a fact that they didn’t, and they actually hated each other.
I’m just an actor, and if I can leave something behind that my kids will be proud of, then that’s what I want. I don’t want my kids to be embarrassed by anything I’ve done.
For me, actors have to have a character, an aura, body language. They’re not models. They used to call actors models. But I want them to participate in the film.
There is a strange pecking order among actors. Theatre actors look down on film actors, who look down on TV actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn’t have anybody to look down on.
I can tell you that from the director’s chair, young actors love to be challenged, to be given killer lines that take time to wrap their mind around.
Bollywood has always pampered heroes and treated actors as second class citizens. But, of late, it has realised that there has to be space for actors who can connect with people.
My favorite part of the whole filmmaking process is working with a fantastic cinematographer, a fantastic actor or actors, and then just creating emotions and stories. I get so excited by that. That’s the part I’m utterly addicted to.
I thought being in the wheelchair might be kind of limiting for me as an actor. It turned out cool in a lot of ways. Of course, at the end of the day, I can get up out of the chair and go home, but I’m very acutely aware that most people can’t, so I try to give the situation that depth.
Earlier, I used to charge territories instead of my fees as an actor, but I realised it was better to keep the two apart. Now, I take my fees in cash, for acting, and keep the distribution thing separate.
A producer wouldn’t think of making a film about ballet dancers without using real dancers, but they will cast actors who have never held a bat in baseball films.
It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.
I’m much more open to being a supporting actor right now. At the age of 60, I’ll be second fiddle. Fine. I’m happy to do it.
George Blagden is a great actor.
I think of myself as a character actor, compared to a straight actor. I know a character actor in England is pretty much the same as in the States; you’re actually hired to put on terrible teeth and stuff like that.
I am sure every movie I’ve made, even as an actor, had multiple test screenings. And I am sure there have been horrible things written about me. But I never have to see them!
I’m sure no one really wants to think of themselves as a child actor.
Dibakar and Shekhar have the vision that we would associate with European cinema. They leave their actors on their own to give a personal narration on the screen.
I am inclined to acting. I like to act and I like being an actor.
To be an actor you have to be a child.
