Quotes About Acting

I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.

I'm affected by the characters I play, and sometimes they're hard to live with.

I still feel the affection of the fans that I get because of my acting career.

I just have always been so interested in the way actors and actresses present themselves to the world because I think it is very important and it affects the way people see you as an actor.

I am African-American, and I am a proud African-American. I just don't like to put myself in a box and say, 'I'm an African-American actress.' I am an American actress, and I can do any kind of role.

I just went to an acting agency one day and just said, 'I would like to act. Would you take me?' And they took me.

As an actor, I don't have an agenda. I don't have to prove a point; I am not a bastion of a particular brand of cinema. I am doing what makes me happy.

Every character I play is straight, which is unique, my agent says, because it's not really been done before that someone who is completely out is able to play straight roles.

I have said to my agents, 'I want to work. I want to play character roles.'

I was cold-calling agents when I was, like, 9 years old, and I was like, 'Mom, I need this thing called a headshot.'

I like playing all sorts of ages and genders.

I'm not someone who had to worry about aging on camera. I was already aged when I got there.

I just think the more you're in front of camera, the better: my main aim is just to tell the truth, be natural, and believe in what I'm doing, and hopefully that comes across as a rawness.

I'm aiming to do what I need to do for acting and nothing more. I'm bowing down to acting.

Al Pacino never looks like he's being filmed.

I don't know what it is about me. I don't know if there's something strange... but I continue to play aliens, so there's obviously something there.

There's really no way to plan how to play an alien.

I'm not exactly in a position where I get to be super-picky about the roles I get. But I would also never want to be a part of something that I think is poor in taste or doesn't align with what I believe in.

The way I work, I didn't hold the accent all day.

I don't know if I will be acting all my life, honestly.

I had done plays all my life. Many, many, many plays, off-Broadway plays.

I love acting. I'm definitely working on all things acting.

I've been trying to find a balance between all things in my life - personal, singing, acting.

I think I am a much better actor than I have allowed myself to be.