Quotes About Acting

I never think about the next movie. I always think about the situation I'm in now, but you do think about an arc someone can go. I love Johnny Depp, I love 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' but I never wanted to play the same character over and over again.

I love pirates, and I'm a big fan of the Johnny Depp films.

When you start off acting, it does seem very romantic, and the make-believe part of it all seems very exciting. It's only later that you begin to realize how fascinating the work is - that it's a bottomless pit, and you never get to the end of it.

Piper insisted she had to be out of breath when we played this one scene, so she ran around the block. Thank God she wasn't doing a crucifixtion scene; we would have had to nail her to the wall.

Sometimes when you do a part, the wall between you and the characters can be very porous. You can sort of move in and out of your character's persona and being. And that just couldn't happen on this one because of working with him.

I remember kind of doing early acting and thinking, 'God, they don't paint behind the sets.' It's a bit of a shame, really - 'Oh, what's on the other side of this wall? Oh, you can see the plywood.' I was really disappointed. I just thought that these things were real, from watching things as a kid.

When people in Vancouver do recognize me, they hide it. I went to a store near my home and I know they're 'Battlestar' fans - they have pictures on the wall! - and I know they know me, but everyone was so smooth and pretended I wasn't there. Most people don't realize how good they are at acting in everyday life.

I like when I have to act and direct; then, when you have to dub, you're by yourself in front of the wall, and I'm always scared that you're not good like when you are in real when you act.

I acted all the way up until Princeton. It was just one of my favorite extracurricular activities. Then I got to Princeton and had a really conservative vibe. All my friends were planning on law school, med school, or Wall Street, and suddenly acting seem like a really risky proposition.

When I got to college, acting suddenly seemed like a very risky proposition and all my friends were going to law school or med school or Wall Street.

I would bend over backward to be back on Grey's. Any day, I'll choose lying in bed with Katherine Heigl looking over me over getting thrown against walls by supernatural persons at 5 in the morning.

I'm interested in pursuing roles that allow me to push against my own walls, my own constraints as a human being, and to find out where I'm capable of going. In real life, I'm not very good at feeling emotions, so I like to do it through my work.

With the wacky jokes that we do on 'Great News,' you do overall still want to be coming from a place of truth with your character because, otherwise, it's just off the walls.

When you're even on a regular movie set, you still have to suspend your disbelief. You're working there with only 3 walls of a room, and you're in costume, and you have a camera 6 inches from you and have a crew of 75 watching you. So even there, you have to crank up your imagination.

I'm obsessed with Maggie Smith - the way that she can be the most brilliant actress in every single situation and then do Harry Potter, and still make me cry while she's casting spells with a wand?

People say to me, 'Well, how do you direct Meryl Streep?' You're not wandering over to Meryl telling her how to act. She's an extraordinary talent and unbelievably hard working; she works harder than anyone I have ever worked with before.

Singing is still my number one. This whole acting thing, it's just for experience, and I just want the people to know that I have other stuff that I really love that I really wanna share with them.

I've seen other actresses refuse to be ugly. Even if the story line calls for it or the character calls for it, they just can't go there for vanity's sake, and they don't want to be perceived in an ugly way. I was like, 'Nah, I wanna go for this.'

I wanna meet Meryl Streep, so she can be my mama. I want Meryl Streep to be my mom in a movie.

When I moved to L.A. and had my first meeting with my agents, they asked me what I wanted for my career. And I didn't speak English at the time, but I did say, 'I wanna be Ryan Gosling as a woman.' So I got very excited to play opposite him.

As soon as I get time, I really wanna dig down and do some acting.

You can tell five minutes into it what a girl is after, when she starts asking how much money I make or tells me, 'I wanna be an actress.'

I'm just an actor. If it's drama, I add as much humour as the part will stand. And if it's a comedy, add as much drama as you can, so it balances out; you don't wanna be too serious.

It's not like you reach a point with your acting where you're like, 'I'm great! That's it!' You're constantly having to go,'That sucked. I wanna do that better.'