Quotes About Acting

I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It's about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.

An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.

I took a break from acting for four years to get a degree in mathematics at UCLA, and during that time I had the rare opportunity to actually do research as an undergraduate. And myself and two other people co-authored a new theorem: Percolation and Gibbs States Multiplicity for Ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller Models on Two Dimensions, or Z2.

I wouldn't be able to tackle a character like Rosalee on 'Underground' without having tackled the many characters I've played before.

Part of progressing in acting is turning down work, and that's hard; it's very, very hard to do. And I think you have to do that so as not to undermine your own sense of value.

I've done so many movies that are bad, with material that's so shallow, that you instantly scratch the surface, and there's nothing underneath.

I think that the reason I became an actor, probably, underneath it, was that I spent my life acting normal.

I think what's most fun is playing someone who's sort of selfish and in a lot of ways unlikeable, but there's this really big heart underneath it that you get little glimpses of.

I'm always just drawn to those roles that present one way and have many other things going on underneath. It's just more fun to play as an actor.

The divinely talented Adam Arkin. So underrated. Every time I do a piece and they go, 'You know, you need a husband in this,' I ask, 'Can Adam Arkin do it?'

His work isn't all glower. Even though he hasn't smiled in a movie since the underrated 'Proof' in the early 1990s, Mr. Crowe is given to a hurt swallow when he's uncomfortable and to a look of suffering in his eyes.

Nick Cage is so underrated.

I did my first movie, 'The Mambo Kings,' in America without speaking the language. I learned the lines phonetically. I had an interpreter actually just to understand directions from my director.

It's got to do with putting yourself in other people's shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

A role like I had on 'Parks and Rec,' to me, is very easy to understand, and that's something that I can do with my eyes closed.

There are so many good roles for women out there, I don't understand it when people say the role choices are fewer as you get older. I find the opposite to be true - there are less good roles out there for the hot 20-year-olds because the normal girl parts just aren't interesting.

I was not only typecast as a Russian, but I was typecast as Yakov Smirnoff. This is understandable, and I was very happy to get the roles, but it would be nice to be in a movie where I could be someone else.

I don't care about sympathy. I care about playing a character who's understandable and clear.

I dabbled a little bit in acting in high school, and then I forgot about it completely. And then at about 25 I went to a class. I don't think anybody in my family thought it was an intelligent choice. I don't think anybody thought I'd succeed, which is understandable. I think they were just happy that I was doing something.

When I was younger, you get pigeonholed in parts, which is understandable.

It's so funny, you go to acting school thinking you're going to learn how to be other people, but really it taught me how to be myself. Because it's in understanding yourself deeply that you can lend yourself to another person's circumstances and another person's experience.

It is very hard to separate one's self from a character. Sometimes the people closest to me have to be very understanding.

I think Nat's an amazing actor... He understands things about acting that most people don't.