Quotes About Acting

I told everyone I would never be an actor. People used to tell me, 'Hey, you got a good look. You should try.' And I was like, 'Nah. That's not me.' And then, the moment I tried it, I found I loved it more than anything in the world, and that taught me a lesson. That is, just go for it.

It's always a little nerve-wracking to do a love scene, more than anything because it's just awkward.

Meryl Streep was my hero. I wanted to be that type of actor more than anything.

Kissing on screen is just - funny enough, you're just acting, so you're distracted by that more than anything. Or at least I am.

More than anything else, I love to act and leave the rest to my director.

I needed to be an actor more than anything.

More than anything, acting was more like a confidence thing. I love words - I love English - but I don't have a hugely academic brain, so I enjoyed it because it was a bit of a respite. I don't think I really had a sense I would actually be a musician or an actor; I just wanted to be around that.

I want to be in a Tarantino movie, more than anything in the world.

I want to better myself as an actor, more than anything else.

In both 'Dondo,' which has been directed by Tarun Mukherjee, and 'Krishna' directed by VV Vinayak, I got to play interesting characters. Moreover, I have enjoyed working for these films, because it was a challenge to learn two languages and express my emotions in them.

People know my characters like Alice Morgan in 'Luther' or Alison Bailey from 'The Affair.' For me, that's a compliment, a kind of joy.

One of my best friends while shooting 'Roots' was Vic Morrow, the guy that whips Kunta.

I love voiceovers. You get to show up for half a day and pay your mortgage. How great is that?

I really love Robert Duvall, who I think is maybe the best American actor. I love Robert Duvall because the ability that he has to change and do the most amazing work.

I'm never in the same place for too long, and you make the most amazing friends on one set, and then you go to another, and you start all over again, and it's lonely sometimes.

I think Edith Evans is the most marvelous actress in the world and she can look beautiful. People who aren't beautiful can look beautiful. She can look as beautiful as Diana Cooper, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.

The most difficult thing to do is drama.

Eventually, I'll go back to acting, but for right now, my children are the most important thing in the world to me.

Just to get the basic fundamentals and empathy - I think that's the most important thing to bring to it if you've acted in the past and are now a director: the empathy.

I'm more of a writer than an actor, and I used to say that I'm mostly an improviser, though I haven't improvised in awhile.

I don't consider myself a great actress. I'm just trying to stay alive, actually. I think I'm good, and I've learned a lot, certainly, mostly in the theater. I've been sloughed off movies for years. But what can you do? That's life.

I do this acting thing mostly for myself. I like to make a connection and communicate with the audience to make myself feel less lonely. I also do it to develop my own character, so sometimes I do it to just be away in a certain area that I've never been to. But mostly, the story has to do something for me.

Mostly in movies an actor has to come to a mark, an X, and deliver his line - but that's so artificial, that's not how people really behave.