Quotes About Acting

Not only is there more content, but the producers are also focusing on characters rather than their ethnicities. I mean, when you go in for an audition, you get a character sketch, like 'a 35-year-old American male.' The ethnicity of that character is developed after casting the actor, and I think that's the most basic change that has happened.

I literally never thought I would be playing a pregnant cis woman earnestly. I thought maybe I'd do that in a sketch or something.

My preference is for people who can do sketch comedy or situational comedy, where it's not a joke, but it's telling a story.

Every movie I do, or when I'm on the sketch comedy show, I don't really get into it until I have an outfit or something funny with my head or face or something.

If you want to be an actor, you need to learn how to act first, even in sketch comedy.

I acted at school but got very bad parts - things that they'd made up in Shakespeare plays like 'Guard 17' - so I wrote plays and gave myself parts, then I wrote sketches, then I did stand-up. Even in the school nativity I was the emu in the manger.

I think to be courageous, you have to be afraid. For me, it feels very courageous when I go skiing because I'm very, very afraid to ski. It's dangerous! I feel very scared. But when I'm acting, I don't feel very scared.

I love doing characters that challenge me. I'd love to do something that requires me to change physically or learn a skill.

I did a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his skill level was eons ahead of mine. It was really more like an abattoir - he just slaughtered my character over and over again.

People take years learning how to act; it's a skill, not just a job. If I tried it out and thought I'd be OK, then perhaps I'd go for it, but it's not the kind of thing you can get into just because of your looks.

I don't think I can call myself an actress yet. I just don't think my skill level is that high. I hope that with every job it gets better. But until I'm good, I can say I'm trying to be an actor, but I don't think I've completely made it.

My job when I'm acting in a movie is very limited to playing a role. I'm not evaluating somebody. I'm only evaluating them insofar as they're interacting with me, but I'm not evaluating their skill set and I don't watch the movies, so I'm not aware of the way they're putting things together.

Personally, I need to learn every word on the page before I go in and audition. I have not mastered the skill of holding pages in my hand and acting with pages in my hand. I find that every time I have to look at the page it takes me completely out of the scene.

Honestly, I wish I'd known just how hard it is and how competitive the acting world is. I took my time; I went at my own pace. That's been helpful over the years, but also, I didn't quite realize how incredible everyone else was going to be: the level of competition and everyone's skill.

I will never be a career actor, I don't think. I don't feel that I have the skill set to jump into it that way, although I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

Acting is many things. Acting is playing lines, of course, but it's much more profound than that. Acting is truth-telling and trying to find the truth in a human situation, which will be sketched out by a screenwriter with all the skill that a screenwriter can do; but in the end, that's just the map of the journey.

Take up martial arts and get proficient. Take a sword-fighting class. Dive in and immerse yourself in it as you would any other acting class, so when the opportunity comes, that skill can be really utilized, and it's not half-baked.

The skill of a gifted actor, their ability to interpret and develop a character and truly bring her or him to life, is one that I admire enormously.

It's actually kind of a skill to act cold - to have the mannerisms of being cold when it's the complete opposite of how you behave when you're hot.

Any skill requires training. I took the corporate approach to acting and wanted to develop the necessary skills.

Essentially, what I do on 'Supergirl' is I'm acting out comic vignettes. That is its own muscle to flex, and it is its own skill.

It's always fun when you pick up a skill for a particular character.

Television is a completely 1,000 percent different skill set than being on stage.

I think people involved in politics make good actors. Acting and politics both involve fooling people. People like being fooled by actors. When you get right down to it, they probably like being fooled by politicians even more. A skillful actor will make you think, but a skillful politician will make you never have to think.