Quotes About Acting

Good writing as well as good acting will be obedience to conscience. There must not be a particle of will or whim mixed with it. If we can listen, we shall hear. By reverently listening to the inner voice, we may reinstate ourselves on the pinnacle of humanity.

Mientras falte esa chispa de pasión, la actuación carecerá de significado humano.

Often she would lock herself in her room and sitting before the mirror, apply the makeup of John Barrymore, Barrymore of The Sea Beast or of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Seeing these gruesome images in the mirror she would being to rave. Who am I? she would say. What am I?

I was able to support myself by acting alone about six years ago. Until then, I was just scraping by.

A couple of years ago, right before I made 'Down to You,' there was a moment when I questioned what I was doing and if it meant anything. I felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything, that the goals I'd set were silly goals. Finally, I realized I just loved acting. It was a very clear moment, and my whole life changed then.

I went to college in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University... studied acting there. Then I went to New York for about five years. I moved out here about 10 years ago.

It's funny, though, speaking of fathers and sons, because me and John Goodman played father and son, like, five or six years ago in the film 'Death Sentence,' and I got back with him again in 'Inside Llewyn Davis.'

Well, I did Marlene 15 years ago and that's in the style. It's somehow similar and not similar because Marlene was much more aggressive, funny and sad.

I will not play just an evil part. In fact, I got offered $7 million several years ago to play the part that Faye Dunaway played in 'Supergirl.' I was kind of insulted. I was impressed with the money, but I said, 'Why are you asking me to play an evil witch? Do I come across as an evil witch to you?'

I did play Ramses II once, who lived to be 91 and had 120 children, but he died 4,000 years ago.

I studied acting years ago; it was kind of a dream I had years ago, but I gave that up when I got married and had children.

Many years ago I was in another soap opera called The Newcomers which was on twice a week for three years. I really don't think I could do another stint like that again.

I am really not interested in the cinema. I loathed it when I started six years ago, and I don't enjoy it even now.

On 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' I spent two or three months learning how to ride a motorcycle. I wasn't really riding the motorcycle in 98 percent of the movie, but the shots of me getting on and off had to look like I had been doing it for years and years.

Before I did any television or film, I did years and years of theater. Television and film stuff, even though it went on for a good, healthy number of years, almost felt like a diversion from theater.

Most of my acting jobs have resulted in a series of mortifying revelations spread over years and years following the shoot.

When you're doing that TV thing, you're doing the same thing for years and years. You can fall into bad habits as an actor and I think it can take a toll on your ability to act, which I think is scary.

I've played heavies for years and years and years. I was bald. I came to Hollywood. I did a play about junk. I was a pusher, so I played pushers for years and years and years. I did war movies and things like that.

I haven't killed anyone on television in years and years. Must have been twenty something years.

The thing about Marvel is that they're not - they're into real acting. They're looking for artists that are willing to take chances and are willing to create characters. Even if that character has been around for years and years in comic books, they still are depending on us to create something and take it somewhere else.

For years and years, I was doing extra work and guest spots and anything I could cobble together.

I am not a person who yells at all, but I realized that I have always felt so good after doing the Tarzan yell, after doing Charo, or screaming as Eunice.

When you make a drama, you spend all day beating a guy to death with a hammer, or what have you. Or, you have to take a bite out of somebody's face. On the other hand, with a comedy, you yell at Billy Crystal for an hour, and you go home.

Sometimes I know a joke I'm going to yell out ahead of time, but most of the time it's stream of conscious. You never really know it until you've got everyone dressed up, the set is built, all the extras are here.