Quotes About Actors

As a format, I have watched shows from the West. I have tried to understand what it is and how this format is treated by writers, directors, and actors. I have been studying this format for four to five years.

In Montana, when we did 'Return to Lonesome Dove', we rode on the side of a hill at night in the dark; I was afraid my horse would step on one of the actors playing dead. The director said to leave it to the stunt doubles since they got paid for that.

With stunt guys, you can punch them in the face because it's, you know, just part of work. You feel bad about that but not as bad as if you punch another actor.

Before becoming an action director in 1990, my father was a stunt man for about 8 years. During that time, he was body double to many actors in that era, one of them being Sanjay Dutt.

Actors always ask their directors what their motivation is in this scene or that scene, so I've always had this joke where I ask the director what my motivation is too. As a stunt person your motivation is usually to fall over a bench or something.

Stunt people are amazing at what they do, but they're not actors.

I went to an acting class for 3 years. But then I figured out that, since there were already 26,000 actors in SAG (Screen Actors Guild), I could make a better living as a stunt man.

We did many of our own stunts. We had our hands full. In fact, the roles were physically demanding.

Doing stunts all by myself has been a deliberate decision because I wanted to do all stunts by myself because female actors don't get the opportunity to work in action films, and I think when you get such an opportunity, then you have to make most of it.

Actors say they do their own stunts for the integrity of the film but I did them because they looked like a lot of fun.

No actor does all his own stunts, no matter what he says.

Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that.

Actors who say they don't watch TV are stupid. I was raised by TV! And it's how I research for auditions.

People like Bill Murray are incredible at what they do and are definitely my flavour. Although Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais are also incredible actors. In their comedy, they make these stupid people feel so real. These guys are really setting the bar very high, and I learn as much from them about acting as I do about comedy.

I'd rather spend my time with grape growers than actors. In the film industry, all the money is focused on television and the stupidity of American cinema.

There are very few actors who elevate a scene through their persona. Like for example, Rajinikanth does it with his style. He doesn't need anything else.

When I think of all the Hamlets I've seen, there's been a load of different styles, some marvellous. You like the Hamlet you saw when you were the right age to think you could be Hamlet.

It may seem that with the new breed of actors - Arjun, Varun, Siddharth, Ayushmann, Sushant - there is suddenly too much of a hustle to make space for oneself, but acting is subjective. And we motivate one another.

There's an intelligence that goes with being a good cop. Intuitiveness - they have to be actors; they have to have deductive reasoning, knowledge about a great deal of subjects.

A lot of the characters I play have problems, they are marginalised, they have serious psychological problems, problems with relationships, with childhood. These are big subjects, big subjects. You can't balk at work like that. As an actor, that's as good as it gets.

I've been shocked by film actors - 25 and under - having such confidence and cockiness to rewrite a scene. My background is more about the director being in control. It's all about yielding. It's an oddly submissive relationship in which you're moulded, Pygmalion-style.

I do not subscribe to the idea of actors Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Pawan Kalyan, and Upendra launching political outfits just because they are actors, though I am a fan of all these stars.

Look at poor Nirupa Roy. She got substantial roles, but at 30 they made her put grey in her hair. And Achala Sachdev was all of 16 when she played 60. She quit because she got nightmares about dropping a thali and screaming, 'Nahin!' You know an actor or any other human being needs to be comfortable in her space at whatever age she is.

Your big movie stars who've been in blockbusters generating a lot of dollars are looking for the meatier, substantive roles that they think will make the awards season.