Quotes About Acting

I used to love watching Angela Lansbury and other people when they were doing voice-overs for Disney shows. You'd see them doing these wild gestures in front of the microphone. I used to think, 'Is that really necessary?' What you realize when you're doing it is that that's the only way.

Acting between action and cut is temporary. The result is permanent.

They wanted me to do movies and television when I was very young, and it was a big temptation, but I really thought the only way I could learn the profession was on the stage.

You need to gain the confidence that you're doing enough on film. You must resist the temptation to do too much.

My first film was with Cuba Gooding Jr, 'The Fighting Temptations,' and I had a little part here and there on little shows as guest stars. And I've taken acting classes.

Actors generally get to do things you probably shouldn't do in real life - well, at least as much as one might like to or be tempted to. Though I suppose a lot of actors just go ahead and do it, don't they?

I don't want to be a silly temptress. I cannot see any sense in getting dressed up and doing nothing but tempting men in pictures.

I went from 220 pounds that I cut down for 'Moneyball' to almost 270-280 pounds for 'Ten Year.'

I had piano lessons at five and started guitar at ten, but although music and acting was always around me, my parents never pressured me into it.

I have been doing commercials on camera since I was ten.

I probably haven't even seen ten of the films I've done. I don't get a joy out of it, and I don't go to the movies.

I've been working as an actress and sort of struggling along for ten years, so I've been on a million auditions for a million things I haven't booked.

I've now been doing this for ten years, and I actually got to skip a stage of going to casting directors, and now I meet with the directors, either for lunch or an audition room, and I still read sides; you're never going to get around that, but I'm not the best person to go on an audition.

I'd play the same character for ten years if the words and the moments that I'm playing are authentic.

For the first ten years of my career, or up to the point I did 'Local Hero,' I was always trying to be somebody else as an actor.

I think if I'd been born ten years earlier when Ma was at the height of 'Avengers' fame, it would have been a different kettle of fish altogether, but she was very much a ma first and an actress second for my formative years.

My only regret is that I didn't get into acting ten years earlier when I was handsome!

A lot of people tend to chew up the scenery. I'm a firm believer in less is more, especially on the big screen.

I'm shy, and I can hide behind my acting and discover the truth about myself because it's cathartic in that way. But I tend not to read reviews.

If you're in America a lot, it's easy to get into playing American. All of it, the sounds, the energies, all very different. But it's really hard to do the accent. I tend to try and stay in it all day, which is the only way I can manage it.

I always tend to see, right after reading the script, the character and how I want to play it. I guess that's sort of most of the work, preparing for the role, but almost the creation of the character seems to go on as I read through the script.

If you're in scenes with a guy you know really well in a comedy, you tend to crack each other up too much.

I have a wonderful wife I met at Rutgers while we were both there. She was in the Ph.D. program. She is not an actress. She definitely brings balance to my life. We actors can tend to bore anyone with shop talk.

Every time I work with a European director, I find they hire the person that captures the spirit of the role. Americans tend to hire the best face. The person that looks more like the role, whether they can perform the role or not is a bonus.