actors Quotes

Look at how many great actors or entertainers have been lost to the world because they did a performance one night and that was it. With film, you capture that, it's shown all over the world and it's there forever.

Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less. Unfortunately, there's a style of acting going round, especially with the younger actors, where they talk without even moving their lip. Maybe it's because my hearing probably isn't what it was 40 years ago but I'm sitting there going \'What did they say\'?

I'm just looking for things to steal [on working with great actors]. It's like going back to acting school. When you're around people that do it well and you get your head out of your ass, you can really learn something.

You have to find actors who have the ability to display a wide range of emotion effectively. That's so much harder than it seems.

I generally don't involve myself in giving the actors some tips on acting. At the same time, I don't do that with the director.

There's a misperception about actors that we actually choose the roles we end up doing - it's more that we're chosen for them.

What I love about him [Robert Rodriguez] is that he understands that actors are transformational. It's a natural instinct to ask people to do what you've seen them do before. Until you see someone do something new, you don't know what they can.

If you have to hire paid actors to impersonate people who politically support you, people don`t actually natively politically support you. You are not a political animal that exists in nature.

Unfortunately, in Hollywood, there are those directors that have some contempt for actors. We've all experienced that, in one way or another.

Brad [Pitt] and I have never wanted our kids to be actors. We've never talked about it. But, we also want them to be around film and be a part of mommy and daddy's life, and for it not to be kept from it either. We just want them to have a good, healthy relationship with it.

I didn't have a problem with rejection, because when you go into an audition, you're rejected already. There are hundreds of other actors. You're behind the eight ball when you go in there.

I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors.

I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don't be afraid to do what your instincts tell you. You may not get the part, but people will take notice.

Actors always talk about taking their work home and I always think: 'What are you on? You just turn it off. You are at work and then you go home.'

I think if you're the son or daughter of successful actors and actresses, it's a double pressure. More is expected of you.

I try to stay out of the spotlight as much as humanly possible, because I think that when actors, whether or not they've chosen it or it has been thrust upon them, are living very public lives, it affects your ability to get lost in their performances.

The TV schedule is fantastic. It allows you to have a life. Theater actors are so disciplined - especially if you're doing musicals, you have to be in shape physically, mentally, and have to be on your game all the time. That's exhausting. On TV, especially a sitcom, you have a lot of free time to play.

Actors need steely determination. It's a tough profession with plenty of knocks along the way. You have to be very determined and never take 'no' for an answer.

I'm one of those actors who is going to come in with 2,500 ideas. You can shoot down 2,499, but one of them you're going to like.

I've talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles, and just the sheer physical toll it puts on one's knees and shoulders - no one wants to do it again. I'm 57 and I don't think I'm going to take on any job or go on vacation again and see to it that I can gain 30 pounds.

But actors with political views are a dime a dozen.

Life actors never rehearse and need no script. A life actor uses only what is available, nothing more, nothing less.

I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever.

Each of the actors need to have their justification for saying something awful. You want everyone to have a positive and negative thing. Even a positive thing needs to have darkness in it. It needs to have depth.

Great actors come with depth about how their character sees the world, and they completely defend it. They could defend it in a court of law, down to the reason the patient deserved this.

My view of actors is that basically they're all harmless lunatics who'd be on the psychiatrist's couch.

It's true that old actors don't die, their parts get smaller. You're less likely to get the part, many parts, if you're playing people your age as opposed to people who are younger. There are fewer parts around.

I don't think I'm very much like anyone else, really. I'm sure there are aspects of other actors that I share, but I don't see anybody else and go, \'Damn, they stole my thing.\' I'm me, and I like that there are people who have an appreciation for that.

Actions are interesting to watch. I learn about the actors. Their movements are emblems of the tensions in this internal landscape, which their actions resolve. About-to-act is an interesting state to experience, because I am conscious of just those tensions. Acting itself feels fairly dull; it not only resolves, it obliterates those tensions from my consciousness. Acting is only interesting as it leads to new tensions that, irrelevantly, cause me to act again.

Many plays - certainly mine - are like blank checks. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.