Quotes About Acting

Der Vorteil der Klugheit besteht darin, daß man sich dumm stellen kann. Das Gegenteil ist schon schwieriger.

Yesterday a very interesting, beautifully photografed english picture about a nun convent in India, "Black Narcissus," with Deborah Kerr who is quite lovely. They are away ahead of Hollywood, better ideas, better scripts, better color, and much better acting. Kurt Weill, London, May 8, 1947

I have too much respect for the characters I play to make them anything but as real as they can possibly be. I have a great deal of respect for all of them, otherwise I wouldn't do them. And I don't want to screw them by not portraying them honestly.

In all aspects of life, we take on a part and an appearance to seem to be what we wish to be--and thus the world is merely composed of actors.

How come I only get booked for MILF scenes now? Whatever. Off to tan and then going to see my girls on the Wicked set.

At 3 years old, I was imitating and doing fun little commercials for the family. Then at 5, I knew, 'OK, this is something I really like.' At 8, I was crying in front of the mirror and my mom was like, 'Oh boy, here we go. We know what she's going to do.'

It's funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters.

Yes, she doesn't really look like either of us, does she? Perhaps she's a girl who's fallen madly in love with me and persists in following me wherever I go." "My talent is shape-shifting, Will, not acting," said Tessa, and at that Jem laughed out loud.

I am dramatic," said Will. "If i had not been a Shadowhunter, i would have had a future on the stage.

Acting is also working with people who invite you into their dreams and trust you with their innermost being.

It's always difficult to play a scene of physical violence because you're always afraid that you don't know your own strength and might hurt someone.

If you work in casting, it's sort of not cool to want to act. A lot of people think that casting directors are frustrated actors, but it wasn't true with any of the casting people I knew.

My job was not to exist at all. Though too much alive to play it to perfection, I feel I performed a fairly adept imitation.

It's the most marvelous and terrible thing in the world. Everyone, but everyone, is pretending to be someone else.

Acting allows me the freedom to let go, to be in the moment, to be spontaneous. I no longer have the fear of losing, of failure.

I have become involved with thinking and acting without the help of an ideology; I have nothing that helps me, no idea that I serve and am known for . . . no rules that regulate the how, no belief that gives me direction, no picture of the future, no instruction that produces an overly ordered mind. I acknowledge only what is and, accordingly, regard every description and configuration of that which we don't know as madness. Ideologues seduce and exploit uncertainty, legitimize war.

I believe acting is very physical, and when you have to fight or do those kinds of things, it takes a lot of respect not to allow yourself to go off and hurt yourself or someone else.

I will end up with someone in the arts. I am positive. I eat, breathe and sleep acting. And I'll end up with someone who is happy staying at home and having me cook supper. But I also really need to be intellectually challenged and stimulated. I want someone bookish, and someone who is passionate.

You know, one of my biggest dreams in life is to play a Disney princess.

Find a good teacher, don't betray yourself to succeed and be a better person before being a better actor.

I'd like to be played as a child by Natalie Wood. I'd have some romantic scenes as Audrey Hepburn and have gritty black-and-white scenes as Patricia Neal.

Life was theater, and impressions one made on spectators were what counted. Public leaders had to become actors or characters, masters of masquerade.

mayhap if I played at being the kind and gentle husband long enough, it would become true. Master Piero once told us that we might embody those qualities we desire to possess by embracing them, over and over, until the line between seeming and being is no more.

Do you want to be an actress too?' I wondered if she was mocking me. 'I don't know what I want to be,' I said. 'Well, what are you good at?' said Sarah.