Quotes About Immersion

Oliver Davenant did not merely read books. He snuffed them up, took breaths of them into his lungs, filled his eyes with the sight of the print and his head with the sound of words.

You know what he taught me? He taught me to feel more. He taught me to give myself over to feelings. And now that's all I have. I'm swamped by them. I can't breathe because I feel so damn much.

As much as I love the written word, I am aware of the ways this love removes me from the world.

My eyes had actual tears, and I thought: It's like this play is happening TO me. Inside me. I wanted to own it. I wanted to eat it, as

poured himself into his work

I can think of no other experience quite like that of being 20 or so pages into a book and realizing that this is the real thing: a book that is going to offer the delicious promise of a riveting story, arresting language and characters that will haunt me for days.

Any time you can take a book a little beyond the realm of pure entertainment, I think it's a good thing. But I don't really have it on my to-do list when I write a book. It just evolves naturally during the process of immersing yourself in a subject.

When I'm playing any of my characters, I totally go into the realm of the character. That's when I'm able to come up with the most creative stuff, and I believe that's what connects with the audience.

When I'm finished with a film, I've been living with it, we've been dubbing it, recording to it, and so on. You walk out of the studio and, 'Ah, it's finished.'

In 2004, when I started recording my first CD, I was coming right out of yeshiva. So I had spent two years completely immersed in the Hasidic culture, disconnected completely from the secular world - movies, music, people.

Even in 'The Red Shoes,' a film that nobody ever has complaints about, there are enormous continuity bumps, and it doesn't matter. You know why? Because you're being carried along by the power of the film.

I like the drinking-out-of-the-fire-hose approach - you're getting way more than you can handle.

I was fortunate enough to see and handle and take in everything I could while I was playing.

With 'Hannibal,' it's almost like the music is part of the furniture, so as a character goes from one room to another room, or we go from one place to another or whatever, the music is just going with it the whole time the same way that the audience is sort of tracking it and following along.

I think there's nothing that makes you happier than to be really involved in something.

I like to work long-term on projects. It's fun to go in and out and get in there and do something and leave it behind, but to me, the real satisfaction is doing five years on a show, where you're really just up to your eyes in it. It's part of your life. That's what makes me the happiest.

People have asked me why are Australians and Brits so good at American accents, and it's quite simple. We grew up listening to the American sound on our TV. That's why American actors have a hard time with foreign accents.

If I see someone out there mouthing the words to a bit, I'm not having fun.

I have a brilliant sound design team who's been working with me since 'Mr. Robot,' and one of the things we always think about - and it's also something we think about with cinematography - is how we get inside the characters' heads and how do we place the audience where we want them to be or how we want them to feel at any given moment.

The best part about doing 'Wuthering Heights' was you were completely in that world. It could not have been done with CGI. You had to be there.

To have 'In The Heights' be my first show in New York after moving here, I remember feeling at the time like, you know, 'It doesn't get any better than this.'

You have to believe that you are the character or the thing or whatever the hell you're playing.

And you can't hide in a comedy scene either. You have to give in to the scene and commit.

Graduate school is a place to hide for a couple of years.