Quotes About Acting

If I don't work very often, it's because what I read is written for formidable actresses, but actresses who make a habit of playing with their cup half full.

When I was in my early twenties, parts would be written for women in their fifties, and I would get them. And now I'm in my early thirties, and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part?' I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it; it's the way things are.

I'm difficult to cast. In comedy, if there's a female character, usually written by a bloke, she's either the ditsy good-looking one, or the sexually aggressive one. I never fit into those.

Making films has never just been a job to me; it is my life. I have some interests outside of acting - I sing and I've written books, for instance - but acting is what keeps me going: it's what I do; it gives life purpose.

When people embrace character, there's latzie. It's the stuffing of a scene that's not written. It's not in the stage direction and it's not in the words. When people embrace character, it informs their living, breathing moments in a scene so well.

It's much harder to act poorly written material. It's much harder to memorize poorly written material.

Playing dysfunctional characters or crazy characters is only fun if they're well written. So I have been lucky enough to be asked to play crazy people who are very well written.

I like a little movie I did in the early nineties called 'Mortal Thoughts.' The part was hardly written, but I learned a lot making it. No one remembers it.

I would love, love, love to do a comedy like 'Gentleman's Guide,' something farcical and fast-paced, but I also want to do something that hasn't been written yet: the story of Sidney Poitier. A lot of people tell me that I look like him.

My very first acting job was with Alan Parker on' Angela's Ashes,' but as a child, I had written to so many other productions just applying for any role. I always wanted to be an actress, and I did loads of acting summer schools.

I'm not going to be precious about the fact that I'm not getting all these other particular roles because there's nothing wrong with the ones I'm getting. It doesn't matter if I play cops for the rest of my life. That's called a career.

Actors always start with the voice and language. That's wrong. They should start with the body. The body is an actor's most important resource.

If you want a bourgeois existence, you shouldn't be an actor. You're in the wrong profession.

I've known Emma Watson since she was 9, we've watched each other grow up, formed this sort of brother/sister bond, and suddenly I'm leaning in to kiss her. Well, it felt completely wrong... but, you know, you try to sink into the character and divorce yourself from it. We ended up laughing hysterically afterwards.

Being on stage is a seductive lifestyle. My advice to aspiring actors is think twice. People sometimes go into acting for the wrong reasons - as a shortcut to fame and fortune. If these goals are not attained, they feel a bitter disappointment.

A lot of the stuff that I've done has been more drama and less comedy. I've had some opportunities to do some comedy, and I've often wanted to do that because it fits with me very comfortably because I talk too much, and I'm always saying the wrong thing all the time.

I've played historical characters before, and I think the trap of all of them is if you try to do an impression. If that's what you're working on when you're doing a scene, then your focus is on the wrong thing.

On-screen relationships are the best because you don't have to worry about saying the wrong things. And if the guy's got a girlfriend, or I'm not attracted to him, it's even better. It's just my character kissing his character.

My nursery school did a production of 'The Three Little Pigs.' I played the third pig. When the wolf knocked on my door, I refused to get up and answer it because, to me, he was knocking the wrong way. I just lay there, snoring away on stage, fully immersed in my character. My dad turned to my mom and said: 'Dustin Hoffman.'

With kiting, you have to land a trick, and in that instant you know whether you won or lost - I knew I could become the best in the world if I trained. But with acting, there are different variations; there's not a right or wrong way. It's so hard because it's so out of your hands. I have no idea what's going to happen!

What I feel is great acting might be rubbish for another filmmaker. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It all boils down to the trust between an actor and a director.

I'm no relation to Lillian or Dorothy Gish. Not even way back. But when I first became interested in acting, I wrote a letter to Lillian Gish. She wrote back, discouraging me from entering the business.

There's nothing more thrilling than watching great actors say things that you wrote and bring them to life.

TV's hard work. I don't know how the hell Angela Lansbury survived doing 'Murder, She Wrote' all those years. And sure, everyone wants to be Bruce Willis or George Clooney - they want to be in film for the range of characters you get to play.