Quotes About Acting

Working with the likes of Joseph Fiennes was just an incredible experience.

I was eight when I played St. Joseph, and I told my mom from that moment on I wanted to be an actor.

I count my blessings every day for getting to play Josh in 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.'

I have a journal, and every character that I play, I write as the character: how I feel about things and how I'm going to play it.

If I weren't acting, I'd study journalism because I love to write.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd probably be working in journalism.

Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef - but that's only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't ever believe that I was good enough to be come one.

When I read something, first I have an instinctual, emotional response to it. But of course, acting isn't only just feeling an instinct for what's going on in the moment with the character. You have to be able to carve it out and consider, follow, and create the whole journey that the character you play is going through.

It's nice to create a character, not just within two scenes, but within the journey of a whole movie. It's fun to do that.

The loveliest roles, for me, have a growth arc - a beginning, a middle, and an end - and I'm always grateful when I can find one of those emotional journeys.

That's the main thing that attracts me - characters who have big journeys. I like playing those people.

Although we hardly see each other off the set, Joy and I get along well when we do. As far as the marriage between Nathan and Haley, I think they are young and will see the reality of the situation eventually.

When it's working, what acting is really about is getting into the essence of a moment in a creative, joyous way - through whatever frees you up.

Working with Jack Albertson was one of my great joys.

So you can't judge the character you're playing ever.

I don't think many actors are the best judge of careers. I think generally we have good instincts about what we can do in terms of acting. And often they become directors, which I don't want to be.

You try not to judge the characters you're playing.

One of the great things that you should never do that I learned from John Malkovich is to never judge your characters.

You can't really judge characters, because that's when it gets really hard to play them.

I judge movies on how much fun I had while I was doing them. I had a great time on 'The Right Stuff.' Doing that was fantastic. And there was the year I did 'The Rookie' and 'Far From Heaven,' which was amazing because those two different roles were just so far apart.

When you're playing a character, I think it's always better not to judge that character.

Good acting should teach people to understand rather than judge.

The acting is better when you know your material is being judged.

There's so much crap attached to acting: the fame aspect, the ego aspect, the 'Am I good, am I bad, am I being judged, who likes me, who doesn't like me...'