Quotes About Acting

If there's anything I'm not pompous about, it's myself or my work. But I seem to be able to play it.

I'm constantly intimidated by Shakespeare's work. Trying to decipher what he's saying and holding on to that thought - not just as an actor, but as a human being - is a rigour.

All movies aren't fun some are hard work. You try to do something and convey a set of emotions that have to do with some real life kind of stuff.

I've had the struggling actor experience. At one point in New York, I was holding four jobs, including bottle service girl, while I was trying to break into acting.

I am not too keen to do movies, as I don't have time to waste on struggling for a role in a film.

In the beginning, I was very stubborn and always wanted to be just an actor. I was told by a lot of people to try my hand at writing or directing, but I always thought, 'I am an actor, and this is what I want to do.'

I do get cast in the same role a lot, but the truth is, I just want longevity. The thing is, I'd rather be stuck in a stereotype than be nowhere. The whole typecasting thing started because of 'Reservoir Dogs.' And I did a bunch of other films like 'Wyatt Earp' and 'Free Willy,' but no one seems to remember those.

I never thought I would become an actress. I always wanted to get into politics, and I moved to Argentina and worked for the U.S. embassy for a bit. It sort of happened upon me when I was home for the holiday - acting, that is - and I stuck with it.

I don't want to get stuck playing the same character over and over again.

The film I do doesn't have to be a film that only my kids can watch. My kids will watch films, but I will decide what they watch and not. My aim is to play different characters and not be stuck in a mould. Just because you are a mom and a wife doesn't meant you have to play those roles, even in films.

I'm happiest on set because I'm not myself. I'm someone else. The moustache, the dinner jacket. It's not me. You're always this sort of double, and it's liberating. Imagine being stuck with yourself... all those doubts.

First time I ever played a bad guy. I didn't want to do it. I got stuck in bad guys for 13 years after that.

When I left drama school, my fear was that I'd get pigeon holed into comic acting and I did so much to counter it that I got stuck in the opposite.

I did this class when I first moved to California. It was a 'Kids on Camera' class up in the Bay Area. That was good for just getting me excited in acting and everything. Then once I started working down L.A., I just stuck to my acting coach, and she helps me prepare with auditions and that sort of thing.

I've played all kinds of historical characters, but they are stuck in movies that aren't their movies.

I didn't want to be stuck in Dickens period dramas because then I would never know if I was any good.

Being on television is a little constraining. You spend six to eight months filming, and you get stuck in that gear. I feel like doing movies is a lot more my style.

There's a wonderful adage in acting that you're stuck with the character, but the character is also stuck with you.

I pretty much always stuck to the most interesting part I could play.

I learned physical comedy to a degree that most child actors never will. I really just became a student of it - became obsessed with it, to be quite honest.

My son Barry, of course, has been on from the beginning. And his son Shane is playing now a med student regularly on the show. And at one point or another, I've had all four of his kids on the show.

I'm less desperate now to express what's inside me, that's true - I act these days because it keeps me awake and interested, an eternal student.

I was a student of Stella Adler and then later Lee Strasberg, and they were into sensory work. At its best, acting is not about words - even when the words are important.

I did a lot of student acting when I was young.