Quotes About Performance

I have an idealistic approach to acting. I want to be great at it, but you can't be great if the scripts are not there and the director doesn't know what he's doing.

Ideally, I'd love to do a comedy just because, work-wise, it'd be a lot of fun.

You talk about results being more important than performances but, ideally, you want to put the two together.

Ideally, you end up going to auditions not because you want a job but because you want to try out a character.

Ideally, I'd like to keep a balance between action and romantic roles.

It's not a matter of learning lines. It's a matter of getting into the ideas and the will of the person. It's a matter of, 'What does he want to do? What does he want to achieve?'

Very few ideas are better than Catherine O'Hara's ideas when it comes to acting.

When I dance, I look almost identical to Beyonce. And I mean identical. In many ways, when she becomes Sasha Fierce, she's actually just becoming me.

Well, I think any actor can probably identify with being a professional liar. You don't always look at yourself that way, but I know a lot of days I do.

It's fun to play a character that you can identify with.

When you take on a role, even if the character is somebody that you are dissimilar to, you have to identify with the role and look for an emotional connection even if there is not a biographical one.

You want people to identify with the person on the screen or in the theater, but you don't want them to identify with you as a person.

Obviously, any time you're closer in terms of what your knowledge is to a character, you can add something. But an actor's job is not to play only people he can identify with.

It's fun playing a more feminine part. I can identify more with a woman of passion and emotion than with a cartoon character. Who knows what a cartoon feels?

When I read a script I either immediately identify with the character or I don't. If I find myself reading the part in my own voice I think 'This is a bit of a drag, isn't it?' and it's no good.

I think I identify as a comedian before kind of anything else. Before I identify as a person, as a human being with empathy.

I think actors are attracted to the idea of other identities and concealing themselves behind some other identity.

There are a lot of idiot fund managers out there who add no value to the process at all.

Finish last in your league and they call you idiot. Finish last in medical school and they call you doctor.

I'm not an idiot: I know that I can sing and I know that I can act.

Every once in a while I play a true idiot, and they're really fun to play.

I would never dispute that I've been given a gift by God. That's something I've been raised to believe. I'm not an idiot: I know that I can sing, and I know that I can act.

To me, I don't feel like a dancer. I feel like an idiot trying to be a dancer.

'American Idiot' was the hardest show that I've ever done - ever.