Quotes About Film

I still think of myself as a stage actor. When I do film and television I try to implement what I was taught to do in theatre, to try to stretch into characters that are far from myself.

I knew nothing about film at all. I suppose the biggest surprise is all these things. In the theatre we sort of do, I might do two or three key interviews and that would be it.

Fundamentally, whether directing in the theatre or a film, you have to be a good storyteller, regardless of the form. The thing I had to work hardest at was thinking in shots.

I think that the wonderful advantage we have in the film of being able to cast a girl as young as Emmy and which we couldn't do in the theatre of course because no girl of 16 or 17 could sing 8 shows a week, couldn't sing two.

I started using film as part of live theatre performance - what used to be called performance art - and I became intrigued by film.

Everytime I get offered theatre I get offered a film role too.

When I was at drama school I wanted to do classical theatre. It just so happened that I did a film when I came out and I moved that way.

Whenever I'm in theatre situations I will go out of my way not to talk about my father, but in the film world I can be really proud of my family and say, 'You know what: my dad's a really, really famous theatre director,' because nobody has any idea.

When I choose projects, I don't stipulate between film or theatre or television. I receive scripts and I read scripts - and when I read a script that's good, I then get married to it and talk to my agent about what happens next.

I'm just attracted to good material and great characters and that can come in any form, whether it's television or film or a theatre piece.

I first decided to become an actor at school. A teacher gave us a play to do and that had a major impact. At first, I wanted to work in the theatre, but there was something about the ambience of film, especially American films, that always attracted me.

There are a lot of pros to doing a film, as far as it helping your film career, and it is completely different financially. But theatre is the only place where you get to actually be the character, and nobody is going to come around and change it later.

I used to say that theatre was my favourite thing. But the more I do film, the more I appreciate it.

My family is not at all involved in television, or film, or theatre, or any of it, really.

I would most like to do film or TV. Possibly theatre in the future, but I'm in L.A. a lot of the time at the moment and if I was going to do theatre it would be in London.

In theatre, there's the director, the writer, and below them the actor. In film, it's the actors who are most important. That goes against the grain for me.

I loved theatre and film when I was growing up in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. My mum's a reflexologist and my dad's a corporate financier.

What I love about the theatre is that it's always metaphorical. It's like going back to being a kid again, and we're all pretending in a room. Sometimes, when the pretending really works, I find it much, much more moving than something on film.

Having done film, TV and theatre, the nicest final bit of the jigsaw is to do live comedy, because you can talk to the audience. It feels really natural to be able to laugh with them, but at the same time still be within the framework of a play.

If I didn't work in television or film, if I didn't have the right look, I never took it personally. Because there was always the theatre. I'm not a nihilist, I'm an optimist. And that has served me well in this profession.

Theatre's a much less faddish, more sensible world than TV or film.

I use cinematic things in a theatrical way on stage, and in film I use theatrical techniques in a cinematic way.

Every film may not be appropriate for a theatrical release, and the theatrical business is not a very good business for anybody except the distributor.

Film is limitless, but some stage presentations on film can look too theatrical.