Quotes About Acting

Mickey and the Bear' was the scariest choice I've made in my career because I feel pretty safe in the world of comedy and everything else, but I don't feel safe in deep, dark, scary roles that I took on like 'Mickey and the Bear.'

My daughter Mickey is an actress, and I tell her women need to make their own films; they should always be looking for stories to develop themselves and go to acting class - not that she needs much prompting in that!

Let me give you a little Mendelsohn 101: I came up in television in the early- to mid- 1980s in Australia.

I've always been in the middle of making my own movies, so taking acting jobs that take me away from that has been impossible.

I am human and get insecure because I am a middle class man and I need to feed my family and acting is the only job I know.

I entered the acting world at a time when there was a higher demand for Middle Eastern actors in the post-9/11 world, and yeah, the roles weren't great.

At a certain point, I had to be like, 'I will not do any more auditions with a Middle Eastern accent.'

I was bullied from grade one to six. Even middle school was tough for me. Everyone had these pre-existing friendships, and I was the new kid, who was acting, so that didn't help much either. It was really tough.

I don't care if someone is new to acting or experienced in acting: you always learn something from them. It's just like people in life - whether they're young or middle-aged or old, you always learn something from someone.

You can't ask someone to act middle-aged. Someone has to bring their own fatigue to it.

There is no role I cannot play except a midget.

I never looked up what a Midwestern accent was; I just did a very generic one.

I always thought my alternative life, if I wasn't acting, would be to become a midwife. I love women. I want to help them exist.

It doesn't interest me to be Harrison Ford. It interests me to be Mike Pomeroy and Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan. I don't want to be in the Harrison Ford business. I take what I do seriously, but I don't take myself seriously.

Mike Leigh taught me about making choices - as an actor, you choose between being honest and clever, and with Mike, it's always about being honest. I learned how to behave on a film set from Jim Broadbent. He was a great example of someone with a fantastic career who kept his feet on the ground.

I'm doing a bit of theatre: I'm doing a Mike Bartlett play called 'Contractions.' I'm very, very happy and lucky to be going back to the stage.

I often draw from people in my own experience to base a character on, going back to my days with Mike Leigh.

When I'm not involved in an acting job I try to run 10 miles a day.

Every time I get a role of a mother, I try to find a different area, person or milieu where I can put the mother That's always exciting.

My foundation in acting has been serious theatre: Albert Camus, Arthur Miller, Shakespeare. It's really the best medium to learn the craft.

I love the art of acting, so whether I do it on film with a million people seeing me or I do it in front of 20 people in a class showcasing my art, I am going to act whether anyone sees it or everyone sees it.

Well, first of all, you read the script a million times. Because what the script gives you are given circumstances. Given circumstances are all the facts of your character.

Acting has always been very boring to me. Anyone not in television to become a millionaire is a simpleton.

There are millions of people in the world, I have only played a few of them.