Quotes About Acting

We want to see football. If people want to see acting, they go somewhere else, not the stadium.

I find it difficult to portray something I've never experienced before. For the character I played in 'Miss Lee,' I had to ask friends and staff members what it was like to be a low-level employee as I've never been one myself.

I was born to be on the stage.

I was a bit of a backstage baby, but I wasn't at all precocious, and there was never a light bulb moment when I decided to go on the stage.

Acting for screen is very different from acting on stage, and then obviously when you dance... everything is a physical embodiment. But the discipline is the same approach. You have to take both things seriously; nothing well-crafted is by mistake.

Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.

A lot of actors will complain about the green screen work, but what you do get to do is what you probably should have learned, from the beginning, on stage. You have to create it in your mind and really go there to bring it. Part of the fun of acting is those challenges. You feel goofy, but sometimes that's a good feeling.

For 'A Little Night Music,' I did try to get little bit more beefed up for that because I thought that would help me carry myself around the stage in that character.

Everything you do on stage is always a response to something, not the next line.

If you are playing in 'Charley's Aunt,' and your favourite aunt died that lunchtime, you'll still have to go on the stage and play 'Charley's Aunt.'

Most of my nightmares involve me forgetting my lines in a stage play.

Lily Tomlin, Judi Dench, Carol Burnett, Linda Emond, Meryl Streep, Janet Mctyre. I saw all these women on stage, and I experienced a feeling that is the artistic equivalent of huffing paint - the world kind of went away, and I felt exhilarated. Also, I drooled a little.

There was a time in my life when I'd only sing. In my initial years, I didn't ever speak on stage, forget acting. Eventually, my confidence as a performing artiste grew.

My God, the stage is the only place I know where to go.

I had left school at 16, gone to stage school - and, until I was 22, I hadn't really played anyone but myself. Then in 1979, I made a film with Mike Leigh called 'Grownups,' which went out on the BBC, and overnight this new career opened up.

I loved entertainment and acting, performing. I just liked the stage and having the spotlight and stuff.

I immerse myself right into my character whether or not I'm relating to people live as an actor on stage or whatever.

God bless Dad, he came to every one of my shows. I was bad, and I had horrible stage fright. My dad was so relieved - he'd say, 'You were terrible; this kid is not going to be an actor.' Finally, I did a play and he said, 'Son - you were really good.'

I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.

Auditions make me nervous; any time I have to perform, I get stage fright.

I think is very beneficial to relax yourself so that when you are doing it you are not staggering for lines and your concentration is not on what I am going to say - but the scene itself, the character that you are talking to.

My first job ever was on 'Peak Practice.' I just had to walk up the stairs. They kept the take where I slipped slightly, which was annoying.

Connie Bennett, the guys used to stake her, she was so good.

I'm still fighting really hard to get any role I get. If it's comedy, I go for the laughs. And if it's drama, I try to tell the truth, and try to play the real stakes of whatever scenario the character's in.