Quotes About Acting

I did as much theater as I could. I worked at a theme park and a Bible theater and a community theater.

My favorite. "Every writer is a frustrated actor who recites his lines in the hidden auditorium of his skull." ? Rod Serling

Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide he exposes himself.

Every time you get on a stage or in front of a camera, the whole exercise is about imagination. You're constantly depicting something that doesn't exist, and trying to find the reality of it. Once you settle on that premise, everything else is a matter of degrees.

I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself—my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity—all come from how I was parented and taught. And none of these qualities that I've just mentioned—none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success—none of these qualities that make me who I am…can be tested.

I've seen people with a tremendous amount of educational background in the field not turn out to be terribly good actors, and I've seen people with no education in the field turn out to be people that I admire quite a bit.

Since I am never alone with myself. Since I am always watching the character playing my part in the scene, there is no possibility of spontaneity.

And I like the look on people's faces when I say I'm doing this movie called Pride and Prejudice and they kind of smile, and then I say I'm in a movie called Doom and they kind of do a double take and try and put the two things together. And they never quite manage to.

What is the stage? It's a place, baby, you know, where people play at being serious, a place where they act comedies. We've got to act a comedy now, dead serious.

Ma che finzione! Realtà, realtà, signori! Realtà!

THE PARENTS HAD been close in college but hadn't gotten together as a group since then. Until they picked this season for their offensively long reunion. One had been heard to say: "Our last hurrah." It sounded like bad acting in a stupid play. Another one non-joked, "After this, we'll see each other next at someone's funeral." None of them cracked a smile.

The principled man is merely one whose ancestors were ruthlessly unprincipled, affording him the option of acting upon fine sentiments.

Enquanto os meses passam, faze de conta que estás no teatro, entre um ato e outro, conversando. Lá dentro preparam a cena, e os artistas mudam de roupa. Não vás lá; deixa que a dama, no camarim, ria com os seus amigos o que chorou cá fora com os espectadores. Quanto ao jardim que se está fazendo, não te exponhas a vê-lo pelas costas; é pura lona velha sem pintura, porque só a parte do espectador é que tem verdes flores

Fear and threat also literally shunt energy away from the areas of the brain involved in self-control and abstract reasoning—the exact opposite of what you want when you are trying to teach someone new ways of thinking and acting.

You're always supposed to have sympathy for the person you're playing. You should be the one person who does.

When I was a freshman in high school, my drama teacher, an incredible, inspirational genius, the guy who got me into acting, he encouraged me to get the lead in a musical. They didn't have any guys.

I got into acting my junior year of high school. We got a new hot drama teacher and I was like 'Alright, I'll try drama.'

I went through two schools of acting but I learned more about acting from meditating and from my marshall arts teacher.

I got into acting because my teachers kept nudging me into it. The power a teacher has to influence someone is so great. I can't think of a profession I have more respect for.

I studied acting for 10 years before I went for an audition. I studied with Lee Strasberg and Actors Studio teachers, and went to the High School of Performing Arts.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a teacher, a history teacher. After all, teaching is very much like performing. A teacher is an actor, in a way. It takes a great deal to get, and hold, a class.

To me, a lot of what makes a good actor is not what a teacher tells you to do but how you respond when youre on your own.

I had acting teachers, and one of the things that was encouraged was to keep it fresh, to be spontaneous. That's the magic of film often.

I grew up the son of an acting teacher but I've never been really good at articulating what that process is. It was always a bit more internal.