Quotes About Acting

Playing Willie Loomis was really fun for me because it was something nice and different to embody. It was neat playing this drunken servant who was hypnotized by Johnny Depp.

I never wanted to go longer than five years off the stage. Not necessarily musicals, but just doing a play or something.

But you're not necessarily ever going to be handed a script where you can say: it's all done and perfect.

I never feel more alive than when I'm on stage. On film you feel chopped up, you can be acting from the neck up, or the hand, there is a lot of close up.

I did an episode of 'Law & Order,' where I literally didn't move my neck because I thought you couldn't move your head on camera.

I always felt like I needed to act. Not that I wanted to act, but I needed to. And I still feel that same way. There's an expression that I get to have in acting that I can't consciously express in my life. It has always defined me and it always will.

Both films and TV have their compunctions, their positives and negatives. For example, I explored a character at great length in 'Maryada'... which can be the ultimate high for an actor, but I won't get this luxury as a film person.

Growing up, I was always adamant that I would never do 'Home and Away' or 'Neighbours,' because as an actor you want to set your path as that serious kind of actor.

I started on 'Neighbours' when I was 14. It's crazy to think now that I had such a bizarre adolescence.

Neither Elizabeth or I are keen to do a real-life couple on the screen. It's not very electric.

Craig Nelson who is an actor and is in a show called Coach in the United States. We began to do some improvisational stuff and we used to get laughs and things.

I'm not looking to do 'Half Nelson' next, but to play anything that's a little more complex is really fun.

I played Nelson Mandela in one thing for laughs - and I did it because this thing had come round from the BBC that we couldn't do it any more.

Acting is a fair business. If you are not going to bring in the audience, no nepotism will work.

The drama nerd comes out in me when I'm in a theater.

I'm a history nerd. Actually acting's the best job for somebody who loves weird, different stuff.

I'm a super theater nerd.

I was a theater nerd.

I think the first couple of times you do make-out scenes, you psych yourself out and it's really nerve racking.

In TV, you don't know everything. The writers only give you scripts before you shoot the episodes. They keep you on your nerve.

Auditioning is so nerve-racking.

When I was going on auditions, it was nerve-racking. I'd always say to my mom that it would be awesome if I could get a series. When Modern Family came along, I said, 'You know what, Mom? I believe I'm going to get this role.'

Auditioning is one of the most nerve-racking things you could ever do, but you have to be so focused that you don't tic.

I did Shakespeare in college, and the nerves I got doing Shakespeare are the same nerves I get doing 'Mad Men.' I want to get the dialogue just spot-on.