Quotes About Acting

For a long time a lot of people thought I'm British, because I'd done so many roles with English accents. People probably still think it. Or they don't think anything.

You can really get into it - especially in the movies, where you really have the time to get into your character and play her well.

When you're playing Shakespeare, it forces you to think and feel and speak all at the same time, which really is what acting is. It expands your imagination and expands your size of thinking.

But that's not what an actor does. An actor finds things in the moment with a director and other actors that you don't have time to hand-draw or animate with a computer.

I love the long-form format of television. I love being able to develop a character, over a long period of time.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

Theater will always be my first love. The time and dedication that goes into the rehearsal process with the cast and crew is something that TV/Movie acting does not offer.

My first job was a film called 'Storm Damage' for the BBC. I was 16 and working with really respected British actors. I didn't have an agent at the time, and it kind of threw me into real acting.

I feel like I'm always being challenged by my voice acting roles, for multiple different reasons. I still get nervous every time I book a gig.

Acting is different all the time. When you're on set, different films, or just even in between, it's never the same. I think that's one of the things I love about it.

It's very hard to play a hyperactive character all the time, I try my best, but I end up collapsing at the end of the day.

The most complex challenge for an actor is the ability to give dimension to the story from the time that it happened, not from the present.

I can act. I've been acting for a long time, but like anything else, don't nobody owe you nothing. You've go to pay your dues. You go from A to Z; you don't go from M to Z.

I think that there's something really special about doing a series. You get inside the skin of that character 'cause it's such a long time.

If you play it safe every time, then you're missing the best part of acting. You haven't learned anything about your humanity.

I had a great time doing 'Torchwood,' I really did.

I tend to turn down roles that are too much like me, what I think is most like me anyhow, because I'm me all the time and I'm sick of it.

If I'm going to leave my family for any length of time, it had better be for a role that I haven't played before, with great people. It had better be fun.

Actually, every time I am back in New York, I read for as many plays as I can.

I've been playing these schoolgirl roles in all my movies. Every time I went to the set, it felt like I was going to school.

I truly love being an actor. I love it with all my heart and soul, and I hope that I get to do it for a very long time.

I kind of hid acting from my dad because I knew what he thought about acting at the time. His advice was "Don't do it," basically.

I think the thing that I always try to do - because it piques my interest - is to play really different parts all the time.

I think it's really great to be able to stick with a character for a long period of time. It's not like you have one shot, and that's it.