Quotes About Acting

The Parent Trap wouldn't have been as special without the remarkable performances by Hayley Mills.

I don't play comedy as comedy. That would be the biggest trap. I think about the characters and their situations. Then you don't have to worry where the laugh is going to be. But comedy is harder than drama.

The great trap for non-American actors trying to play Americans, I think, is to start thinking of American-ness as a characteristic. It isn't. It is no more a character trait than height. It is just a physical fact, and that's all there is to it.

One trap you can fall into when playing someone iconic is to end up doing everything in an iconic way, no matter how pedestrian or mundane that thing is.

I've always thought like I'm really a 3-feet-high comic trapped in a leading man's body... but then I played Nicholas Nickleby, and suddenly I was heroic.

I'm not going to normally get hired to play those emotional things, and I'm capable of it. I was raised by a single mother in Iowa - I'm just trapped in a big, dumb body.

In a play, you can adjust your performance to audience reaction, but in a film, it's like you're trapped in a bad dream watching yourself act, and you're in the audience.

If this acting thing doesn't work, I'd just put in my resume for NBA.com. I'm a really huge basketball fan... I'll talk all sorts of trash.

I know that some of the characters I played were trash. But then, I chose to take up those roles, as I enjoyed doing them.

As actors we keep on hoping to get that one good role, but at times we have to go through a lot of trash to get there.

It's rare that you get to have a lovely time of it and you're not just portraying endless trauma on film.

You know, a lot of actors I think go into acting for therapy from whatever trauma has affected them as children. But for me, I think I sought out the drama. That's why I like doing what I do.

I think if you've held onto a character for several years and then you're getting rid of that character, it's going to be traumatic.

Auditioning for 'Philomena' was such a traumatic experience because I had three callbacks, and I was absolutely positive that I was just an option.

Modeling isn't really a tough job. Acting is much harder: so much prep and changing your look and mannerisms. It's a more difficult lifestyle being a model. I traveled all the time. Although, now I wonder, because I travel all the time for acting, too. So they both have their difficulties.

If you can sell that you're the King of Scotland, or Henry V on a tiny stage in a studio theater somewhere, then you can probably sell that you're a starship captain or a time traveler.

After graduating from University, I began directing in theatre too, and I've been directing, writing and acting ever since, which has allowed me to continue this traveler lifestyle.

I went to a school called Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. I went because initially I was very naughty, and my mom thought if I was busy, I'd be better. And I didn't really do acting until later on in the school, with an amazing teacher. I left, went traveling, came back.

I never thought I would get married and have kids. I thought I was going to be a gypsy actor, traveling all over the world playing the great roles. I ended up having a kid very young, and it put things in perspective.

I'm a regular Canadian girl. I enjoy staying home. In the summer I've got a garden. I'm very much a homebody, a normal, family-oriented girl. But I do have this other incredible side of my life that involves acting and traveling.

People think acting is just memorizing lines and doing facial expressions. No it's about traveling along a path of discovery, intention and connection.

I started as a model in Mexico - I was traveling, but my base was in Mexico City. And then I studied acting for three years.

We had to speak in a different dialect for '1666.' And when we were told that we would need to do that, I think that was the most daunting part of traveling back 300 years.

I was always performing as a child, and then I was determined to act and sing and dance, so I travelled for miles every day to go from home in Kent into London.