ACTING QUOTES II
quotations about acting
By the time an actor knows how to act any sort of part he is often too old to act any but a few.
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
The Summing Up
Great actors share the parts of themselves that most people keep hidden. They are always naked.
MARCUS GEDULD
"How Do You Differentiate Good Acting From Bad Acting?", Slate, September 10, 2014
I became an actor so I didn't have to be myself.
MARK RUFFALO
interview, About Entertainment, October 20, 2015
The chance to become someone else, and really understand what motivates them, is what acting is all about. And when you have amazing characters to play, it's a dream come true!
VERONICA TAYLOR
"Meet Veronica Taylor, Voice Actor for Pokémon Icon Ash Ketchum", Nintendo News, March 1, 2016
An actor's a guy, who if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening.
MARLON BRANDO
The Observer
After acting for so many years, do you know who you are anymore? Because actors are liars basically, you lie about who you are to an audience.
STEPHEN COLBERT
The Colbert Report, September 18, 2014
Your relationship with a live audience is very different than your relationship with the movie camera. It used to be even more so when we used actual film. Then the actors could hear the film running through the camera. It felt like a living organism is witnessing what you're doing. But we don't have that anymore.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON
"Scarlett Johansson on Finding Love and Protecting Her Daughter", Parade, April 23, 2015
Yes, I have met with unsympathetic audiences in my time, but I don't know that an unsympathetic audience has much effect on me. I am not sure that I don't rather enjoy it for a change, for it is then a battle between me and them, and I always win.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Strand Magazine, 1895
I used to have a certain dislike of the audience, not as individual people, but as a giant body who was judging me. Of course, it wasn't really them judging me. It was me judging me. Once I got past that fear, it freed me up, not just when I was performing but in other parts of my life.
JULIE ANDREWS
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 2000
The problem with drama school is that you will most likely graduate an entitled twat.
ANDREW HEARLE
"Forget you Went to Acting School (Immediately)", StageMilk, May 13, 2018
Movie actors are just ordinary mixed-up people--with agents.
JEAN KERR
Mary, Mary
I think acting is making the impossible possible.
NAM TAE HYUN
"Nam Tae Hyun is complimented for his 180-degree change in attitude", allkpop, February 25, 2016
An actor's job is to know the breadth of human possibility and the depths of his or her own possibilities. He or she must pull from this well and surprise us. Otherwise, the actor becomes boring and predictable.
MARCUS GEDULD
"How Do You Differentiate Good Acting From Bad Acting?", Slate, September 10, 2014
The actor's work requires them to lower their barriers -- the barriers we erect to protect ourselves -- it requires them to drop the carefully composed masks we wear to help us negotiate our way in the world.
JAMES DEVEREAUX
"The Dignity of the Actor", The Great Acting Blog, October 16, 2017
Acting is a form of confusion.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD
attributed, IMDb
Work was never about wanting fame or money. I never thought about that. I loved getting the job, going to rehearsal, playing someone else, hanging around with a bunch of actors. I needed that, the way you need water.
SARAH JESSICA PARKER
Sam Magazine, 2005
Once in a while I experience an emotion onstage that is so gut-wrenching, so heart-stopping, that I could weep with gratitude and joy. The feeling catches and magnifies so rapidly that it threatens to engulf me.
JULIE ANDREWS
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
There are always going to be more actors than anybody can ever use.
EDWARD ALBEE
WNBC TV interview, Jan. 9, 1966
If you get an impulse in a scene, no matter how wrong it seems, follow the impulse. It might be something and if it ain't ... take two.
JACK NICHOLSON
attributed, The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen
There are no bad actors, there are only bad directors.
RICHARD BRODY
"Is Method Acting Destroying Actors?", The New Yorker