Quotes About Acting

Quite honestly I never had a desire to be an actor. I tell people, 'I did not choose acting; acting chose me.' I never grew up wanting to be an actor. I wanted to play football.

My first thought in life was wanting to be an actor. I was in ballet slippers and on pointe as soon as I could walk. I always wanted to be an actress, not a mother or housewife.

Most people know me from 'The Office,' where I played a guy who grunted out three or four words an episode and was kind of a knucklehead, and so I think it's surprising for people to see me do something like this. But Shakespeare is what I grew up wanting to do.

I started out wanting to be an actress. My sister was in this theater company in Brooklyn. I saw her in some plays, and I was immediately obsessed. I started auditioning for plays when I was about 10.

With acting, you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war, where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting, you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy, and have the cameras rolling.

When I was shooting for 'Ankahee,' I had to visit the women's ward of a mental hospital to study the role.

Just let the wardrobe do the acting.

It's easier to play quirky characters and hide behind wardrobe and make-up, especially.

I think wardrobe is a really important part of making a movie and developing the character.

When I was starting out, doing guest spots on TV, and even commercials, I would go in with a whole crazy wardrobe and some terrible accent. Obviously, I was doing too much. If you bring too much flavor to it, it's absurd. There's something to just being spontaneous.

Using clothes to transform was a huge part of my childhood. But also, I've been acting forever, and wardrobe changes the way you feel, so it totally indicates the character you're going to play.

It helps with your acting when you're not in a perfect costume, perfect wardrobe, a perfectly seamed blouse, perfectly ironed hair, and perfectly done eyeshadow. It's really liberating.

Anybody who works with me knows this: I always repeat wardrobe in my characters. We're trying to play real people.

Wardrobe is - in films, I could say it's a good half of the acting. You get the right rags on, they'll talk for you.

I had a role in 'Crossroads' when I was about 21, and then I went on to perform in 'Small Change' and then 'Piaf' in the Donmar Warehouse, London, and it was when I was there that some casting directors spotted me.

When you're young, working in a warehouse or selling hot dogs, you look at work - at acting - as something precious. It gets you out of the stink.

When I played Candy Darling in 'I Shot Andy Warhol,' that was easy to play that part. They made me into a woman: I'm in heels; I'm waxed. I'm gonna find the femininity and lay on the bed and take the voice of an old movie star.

My new movie, Fools Rush In, is a romantic comedy and the girl I play in that is very warm, very sweet.

If tough old Lefty Helen Mirren can warm towards the Crown after impersonating Her Majesty, who's next? Since reigning and acting have so much in common, it's surprising all actors aren't fervent royalists.

I was used to theatre classes. I studied with my mother; she was a theatre teacher and directed, too, so it was very family-like. Then I studied with a great teacher in Paris, and she was wonderful; she pushed me, but she was a warm soul.

Ellie Kemper I just adore. She is such a warm, generous actor, and we have this wonderful rapport off camera, and that's very important.

I love the process of working on a play. I love rehearsal so much. New York can be so tough, but the community in the theater is so warm and glorious.

I have other careers in terms of stand-up, stage acting and writing, so I don't feel too hidebound by that, but I do quite like playing those warm roles.

When you think of the warm grandmotherly type of character, you don't think of Elaine Stritch.