Quotes About Acting

I like to say good dialogue is a million times easier to memorize than bad dialogue - difficult good dialogue, even if it's difficult. Aaron Sorkin dialogue is easier to memorize, even though it's wildly complicated.

I had to focus and create a character in Bagger Vance, not just do my 'Will Smith' thing and get paid.

One of the skills I had to learn and become proficient in is kissing a man. I had never kissed a man. Will Smith did it in his movies, so did Jake Gyllenhaal, and I figured it was my time. So it was me and Steve Carell - fantastic.

Initially I thought: 'I would never get cast opposite Will Smith! No one would ever buy it with the age difference, our personalities.' I can't think of a couple that makes less sense in every way, shape and form.

When you have a movie that has big stars in it... like, Will Smith does a great job in 'I Am Legend,' and it's a magnetic performance, but he's always Will Smith. That's not his fault. That's not anyone's fault. He's the center of it, and he's a movie star. But when you see something like 'Jurassic Park,' Sam Neill is Alan Grant.

Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Derek Luke and Leonardo DiCaprio inspired me the most. The rawness balanced with charisma that they all bring to the screen is awe inspiring.

I went to the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, where I had a teacher really named Edward Shakespeare. He was a very influential figure in my childhood - I acted in high school a few times, but Mr. Shakespeare got me to lead in 'The Crucible.' I played John Proctor.

I sit every once in a while and I think about plays and films I can do with William Petersen into our eighties. He's the most incredible scene partner I've ever had.

Pretty much anything William Shatner is in is great. He's great at playing that 'I'm the only one sane in the world' character.

My first paid role was my first job out of drama school, which was 'Just William.' It was a BBC TV show. I played Ethel.

I stopped modeling so I could go to drama school at the William Esper Studio. It's Meisner.

William Atherton has a very different acting style to Bonnie Bedelia; she has a very different style than Bruce Willis.

Even if I hadn't been cast as Doctor Who, my acting would probably have been influenced by William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, and all of the other guys. Because those were the actors that I really watched every moment of, as opposed to Laurence Olivier.

I've taken that with me since working with him; in order to be William Hurt, you have use every moment like he does.

I used to watch 'Doctor Who' as a child with William Hartnell and Pat Troughton in the black-and-white days, so being cast is brilliant.

I got to see this big crazy wild man Robin Williams on the set, and got to act with him in that sense. And then I got to just have really quiet time with him in the trailer, where he's way more soft-spoken, way more introspective.

I want to be like Robin Williams, really. It's all the different characters he does, all the different voices.

It was interesting doing impressions as somebody else doing impressions. Normally, I'll do a voice, and it's me doing the voice. To have to be Robin Williams doing the voice was an interesting sort of study in getting into somebody's head.

I grew up watching stuff with Jim Carey, Robin Williams and Sandra Bullock in them. I've always been attracted to the actors who are a little more off beat.

I ran into my old friend Michael Kenneth Williams, who I worked with on a show called 'The Philanthropist' for NBC. He was going to be doing this show called 'Hap and Leonard.' He was playing Leonard, and they were looking for somebody to play Hap.

Before acting, I was always attracted to words, to literature - be they the words of Williams, Arthur Miller, Shakespeare or Moliere.

The thing about 'Harry Potter' is it's great fun because of the people - I was usually with Julie Walters and Mark Williams, Brendan Gleeson, Robbie Coltrane, and the kids. Wonderful, funny, amazing people. If you're going to hang around on a set bored, you might as well do it with Julie Walters.

I would like to perform more in English. But there have to be many good things gathered for me to be willing to do a movie. I watch trailers of every new American movie and I'm, like, 'OK, I'm not missing anything!'

I still have the desire to do the job of acting. It's just a matter of whether I'll be allowed to do the job of acting that remains to be seen. There are only so many brick walls that I'm willing to beat my head on.