Quotes About Acting

I never did improv professionally, but that was certainly in my training as an actor. I like it.

I think there is no better training than being onstage because here's the thing: the theater requires you to act with your whole body. I think acting with your whole body gives you a root, and you can build from there.

When I went to San Francisco for the first time in 1975, I went there for a summer, this acting training program for three months in the summer - I've never been the same.

For me it's always about first impressions. I trust my instincts. I love to prepare if it's something that requires training. But I don't like to prepare the psychology too much. I enjoy the psychology of the character but I work better from a first impression.

'Community' was a very important part of my growth as an actor. I see it as my acting school, not having a lot of formal acting training.

The soap opera was so long ago - the thing about soap operas, and there's something to be said for doing it, but you do a script a day. I don't want to say it's a training ground; it really isn't, but what it does teach you is discipline.

I really loved when I started doing '70s Show,' though I had never acted before, so it was a great training ground being on a sitcom.

We tend to have so many more close shots, which compels an artist to actually put in more effort than it is required otherwise. So, it is the expressions on the face, and how an actor presents his or her character, that really makes a scene. In such ways, Mollywood is a fabulous training ground for actors and actresses from other industries.

I really liked John Candy in 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles.' He was so good in that movie.

To be honest, as an actor, job security is not a trait.

See, all actors pretend. I enjoy that pretence. I don't wear heels in real life, but if it is for a character, I love to get into the traits of the person I am playing.

Frankly speaking, ever since my debut, I have been offered cop roles. However, I never felt confident about pulling them off, probably due to my short physique or the absence of the required traits in me.

At first, like every other actor, I wanted to do characters with deep traits - what we call 'serious characters.'

When you're doing a movie, it's finite - you have a trajectory of where your character's going, and you follow that. Then the storybook closes.

If you went to Harvard Medical School, chances are you'll be a doctor at some place. There's a career trajectory. Acting, there's nothing. It's constantly trying to procure jobs - it's very disconcerting.

When I'm acting, it's like I am the character - no one can talk to me. But I'm not so method I'd sell my house and live on the street to play a tramp.

I'm not Charlie Chaplin and will never, ever claim to be. But when I become the 'Tramp,' I can feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

I have an occasionally recurring stutter, but not when in character on stage in a play. Odd. James Earl Jones has the same pattern; he stutters in everyday life but not when acting. Preparation requires an actor's concentration to make the words belong to another person, which is its own sort of trance.

In the end, I realized that I just didn't like acting enough to put up with the stereotype and I didn't really think I was good enough to transcend it.

Sometimes I get a little confused because with dancing I can express my emotions with my body. With acting you have to do it with your face and your expressions, and then with animated shows you have to use your voice and use your inflections. So it's definitely a challenge to transfer from each genre of entertainment.

After I was cast, I decided to read 'Sharp Objects'. I ended up drowning it in sticky notes, highlighter and pen. It became my little diary I could refer to. I took little quotes out of the book and transferred them onto this scrapbook I kept about Amma.

I certainly don't like to play a bad guy. There are no bad people. It's only shades of grey. Also, I am not a great actor who can transform completely into a totally different character for a movie. I am not a trained actor.

I mean I tried to transform myself through characters throughout my career.

I don't think you can ever completely transform yourself on film, but if you do your job well, you can make people believe that you're the character you're trying to be.