Quotes About Performance

I think it was when I was 12 when I entered a singing competition. I sang my own original song for an audience of 1,000 people.

Originally, I think basketball is closer to hockey than baseball.

I play the leading lady in Arjun Rampal's latest production, 'Daddy'. It's a very bold, performance-oriented role, and the team had originally cast someone else. However, when Arjun saw my performance in 'Kaaka Muttai,' he roped me in.

To me acting originally became an extension of game playing.

Originally when I went off to work on 'The Lord of The Rings' I got a call from my agent saying that I was just going to do a voice. But I couldn't really approach it like that. To get Gollum's voice I had to play the character.

'Big Love' was originally an ensemble song, but it's done now as a single guitar piece.

I guess I originally got the bug for performing when I was in choirs and school stuff and all that. I don't know when. I guess I decided to do it because a lot of people said I was good, and I liked the attention.

And for me I think I was originally a theater person, a producer/director/actor.

It's funny, the only song I didn't want to do originally was 'Oh So Quiet.' And it was the best performance and changed the game for me.

My whole way of looking at entertainment and audience engagement - and my ability to go from one genre to another - comes from my experience in New Orleans.

Anything back in New Orleans is definitely nostalgic. I really played my first shows of my life and learned to perform here. I learned how to work a stage and how to connect with a crowd. It all started here.

In New Orleans, we like to interact with the crowd. We don't like people sitting down.

Something like 'Rust and Bone' would be a dream. Very pared down. 'Orphan Black' is such a challenge. I just need something that isn't as full-on intense as that.

My first performance was as one of the orphans in 'Oliver!'

You can't, or you shouldn't, be nominated for an Oscar unless you've turned in a performance that's special.

Nathan Lane always wanted to play Oscar. When he came in the first day, he already knew his lines. He said he'd known them since he was 18.

I think for most actors, because we sort of have to tell ourselves this, we always say, 'Oh, it doesn't mean anything to win an Oscar!' It certainly isn't a goal that you want to set yourself up for, because then you're just setting yourself up for disaster. Because how many people actually win an Oscar?

The real road, to me, was within the actor, within myself, within my own personality. How much Jeffrey can I find, and how much of Jeffrey could I access? What parts of Jeffrey have I never used for Hank or for George or Oscar? - and that was a delight.

My Oscar has appeared in every play I've done since - not in view of the audience, but for my colleagues to enjoy.

You don't just win an Oscar because you're a great actor. You campaign for that Oscar: you engage with it; you go on the David Letterman show, and you do the interviews, and that's how you get out there.

I'm very proud of my New York debut. I played Oscar Wilde in 'Gross Indecency' off Broadway in about 1997. And I was very proud of my Broadway debut in 'The Iceman Cometh.'

Oscar De La Hoya looks good boxing, but you have to consider the opponent.

There are actors who have never gotten an Oscar and have done amazing work.

Stuntmen bring a lot to the film industry, especially in action films, but if you start trying to give an Oscar for a stuntman, say he doubled a star, I think that takes away from the star's value.