Quotes About Acting

I'd beg to differ from the common perception that real-life soul mates don't make a good pair on camera.

Some people are brilliant at being comedy actors and if you're a comedian I think there's a perception that, if you're acting at something that's meant to be funny, it will be funny all the way though and you'll be dropping in gags.

Writing, for me, when I'm writing in the first-person, is like a form of acting. So as I'm writing, the character or self I'm writing about and my whole self - when I began the book - become entwined. It's soon hard to tell them apart. The voice I'm trying to explore directs my own perceptions and thoughts.

Your body is not your own when you are acting in a film. It becomes your character's body. Everyone sees you like that and builds up perceptions of you that have nothing to do with you.

Well, you know, I mean, she was so wonderful, and she really played the role to perfection.

How do you try to play 'Captain Hook' better than, or as well as, Dustin Hoffman? You can't. It's perfection.

As a dancer, it's hard because there's such a perfectionist quality that you really have to let go of while you're acting, because nobody wants to a watch a perfect person on screen.

I left my mark on 'Dark Shadows.' One day I was doing my lines perfectly from Act 3. Everyone else was doing Act 2.

I'm a con artist in that I'm an actor. I make people believe something is real when they know perfectly well it isn't.

If you are supposed to be villainous and have some sort of agenda, I like the idea of delivering that kind of character in a perfectly well-mannered way.

The best script in the world doesn't work perfectly when you actually act it out. That's a law. That's a given. So you have to play with everything. And the more fun you have with it, the better the finished product.

Doing comedy is very difficult and if you do it perfectly you can do any kind of roles.

Life is the farce which everyone has to perform.

You can perform all kind of characters but you cannot change what people feel for you.

I was singing before I started acting. As a kid, I would always perform at the big family parties.

To be on screen, you need to do a lot of other things. You need to look good. You need to perform well. You need to act well.

I have to believe in the character to perform it.

I always say that I was dancing and acting in the belly. I feel like it's something I was born with and inspired by my family since I grew up backstage, watching them perform. I guess it was just a natural path for me.

That's what I've wanted to do my whole life, just act. When I was younger, I loved to entertain people. I always used to make up dance routines, do little plays. I love to perform, basically.

As an actor, I've always found that my job is not to judge the content in which I've agreed to perform in. What I try to do is just find the truth in every moment that they've written.

I find all of my performances come down to mathematics in a sense - how do you approach the problem of this character? Sometimes I crack that problem, sometimes I don't.

There is a misperception, if you will, in critical response or even in Hollywood, that I can only do exaggerated characters. Or what they would call over-the-top performances. Well, this is completely false.

I can see it in even great actors' performances, when they're phoning it in.

My favourite performances are by actresses like Bette Davis in 'All About Eve' or Gena Rowlands in pretty much anything - performances that have nothing to do with age.