Quotes About Acting

It's amazing how you get to recreate somebody else's life on-screen. It's wonderful when you get responses like, 'You actually look like him.'

When I dub for my films, I have my scenes already in place and I just have to work on my voice and deliver the same emotions. I have to recreate those emotions.

I have a recurring role on 'Person of Interest,' which is my husband's show. I play the love of his life. It was really fun to do that.

I wish I could have a recurring role on 'Modern Family'. I think 'Modern Family' is the best comedy on television. It's extremely well written, extremely well acted and directed.

I really feel all my adult life has been spent in that little black box. If a wonderful part on TV came along I would do it. But I don't want to do a recurring role. It would just be my luck that the thing would be successful. I'm old enough now and also secure enough financially that I really only want to do what I want to do.

Everybody asks, 'How do you do it?' And I'm like, 'Well, I'm recurring on both shows, so the reality is, I can do both shows.' And that's the best position to be in. And 'Heroes' just asked me to come back and do more. So once I stop airing on '24' for a little while, I'll be on 'Heroes,' and then I'll be back on '24.'

I have a recurring role on 'NCIS' and that's been a lot of fun.

And in 'Frisco Kid' and in 'The Woman in Red' I had to ride badly. Then you have to really ride well in order to ride badly.

Writing and directing might be a red herring, and really I'm just re-examining what it is to act, to do it well and do it properly.

I used to call him Pinocchio on the sets. Pinocchio's nose would turn red if he lied. Aamir would turn red-faced if he had to tell a lie.

I go to auditions even now and people say, 'Oh, she's too pretty,' or 'She doesn't look like a small-town girl or a girl in high school who would get bullied.' But that's the whole point of being an actress - you can look glamorous when you're on the red carpet, and then bring it all down and be raw onscreen.

I want to do a gritty, independent film, maybe in Scotland or something. I'll have an outrageous accent, and flowing red hair.

I'm not really a redhead, but I keep playing these redhead actresses. Which I don't mind; I think it's fun.

I don't like to reduce a role to fit me. The challenge to me is to expand to it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But that's the challenge of it.

The experience of both acting and producing has been wonderful. It certainly has created a full plate. But it is very exciting and rewarding to have creative input on the show. 'Reed' is about love and family and for me, playing a hand in shaping it has been deeply gratifying.

Reed Richards in 'Fantastic Four,' to me, was a huge character departure from, like, 'That Awkward Moment' or anything that I'd just done before that.

I am sure that I don't want to take up stupid roles. And by stupid, I refer to those which doesn't have any sense. A role should have some life in it, right?

I never like to refer back to anything I've done when I'm working on a character, even if that character has the same occupation.

I was lucky to get into drama school and become a professional actor. No-one ever mentioned the colour of my skin. It's only when I came out of RADA - the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art - that I suddenly realised people started to refer to me as a black actor.

So, a flop is basically tricking the referee into thinking somebody fouled you or maybe elbowed you in the face.

When you're shooting you go to references in your mind. You think about how you should stand in these particular clothes, or how you should move. You think about the different characters you're playing, really.

I tend not to have any references to anything. I just jump into the script in front of me. If you reference too much, you have no idea if the performances are right.

You know, I just tend to do the scene that I'm given, really. If it really needs it, then I'll go to them and ask 'What's she talking about? What's she referring to?' But often they don't know, or they do know and they're not going to tell me, so I've learned just to work with what I'm given.

I think I take away a naturalistic approach to acting from doing 'The Larry Sanders Show,' a way to put aside acting and just exist in the world of what's being handed to me.