Quotes About Acting

I think when you're acting, you usually don't have to know too much beyond how to pronounce the words you're saying.

I started acting professionally when I was about 17. I worked immediately, but a year into it, I did an independent film in Canada, and that started it all. It was proof that maybe I could do this as a career.

I had done maybe three lines of dialogue, ever, before doing 'Death Proof.'

It would be prudish to say, 'I don't want to be a prop in a film,' because there are certain films I've loved doing, as I have looked very glamorous in them.

There used to be no bound scripts and the dialogues were given to us on the day of the shoot. There were no proper makeup rooms.

As soon as I got my proper first job, I never did acting again. I think the last thing I did was a Mike Figures film, and then I got a series with the BBC. I'm glad of the experience, because I think it's very, very good to understand what actors go through.

Chris Messina is amazing, and he's so serious - he's, like, a proper actor! He's got craft! I love to watch him. But not in a creepy way.

When you get a good script, and the director gives you proper lines, half your job is done.

I did a lot of stage plays and musicals, and my first proper acting job was on 'Holby City' when I was 15.

I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.

When people asked me, 'What are you going to do?' I'd say, 'I'm going to be an actor,' without really thinking about it. And I started acting without really thinking about it. I only thought about it properly a bit later.

If I get a well-defined role and properly etched scenes, then I feel motivated to perform better.

My daughter told me that she wants to become an actor even before she learnt to speak properly.

Acting gives me the opportunity to be fascinating on stage or, I suppose; properly speaking, pretend to be fascinating.

When I was little, acting opportunities were always proposed to me as 'a favour.'

I've never taken an acting lesson in my life, and it's not my chosen profession, so I'm flattered when people say I can do it and give me props for doing it.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

All that prosthetic makeup drains you. By the time it's lunch, you're done.

When you're with another actor who's also been through five hours of prosthetic makeup, and you're eating another person's neck, and fake blood is being spurted out at you for two minutes, it's incredibly fun, and you're in character for that time. You can't really believe that that's your job.

When I did 'Kapoor & Sons,' I had a prosthetic look. It would take me six-and-a-half hours daily for 20, 25 days.

I get auditions for best friend, best girlfriend, a doctor who appears in one scene and tells the protagonist that he has cancer, things like that.

When I get onstage in a play, I feel very safe, very protected, very fulfilled.

When you're in the head of the character, you feel less self-conscious. If I was just being me, I would feel so exposed and be like, 'Why is there a huge camera in my face?' But, when you're believing in the person that you're playing, you feel protected. It's about being true to that person you're playing.

What I love about acting is trying things and screwing up, then trying again, all in this protected little bubble. That's living the dream.