Actors' quotes about acting and filmmaking

“As an actor, I've given up judgement of evil.”
John Carroll Lynch

“I think you can tell the human condition better through comedy.”
Héctor Elizondo

“To be a good actor, you have to be very smart.”
Lena Olin

“Choosing a role is very difficult. There's no way to have a strategy.”
Lena Olin

“What I am doing is not acting. I am playing myself.”
Charlotte Rampling

“If words don't have vibration behind them, and a real feeling behind them, then they're just words.”
Charlotte Rampling

“Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.”
Tom Skerritt

“Whatever we think about our characters, there are people out there who think totally different things.”
Ron Rifkin

“But I don't really care for directors flaring up and trying to humble some actor.”
Richard Farnsworth

“Nobody tells you that you’ll be up all night and be doing the scene over and over again until you get it right.”
Miguel Sandoval

“I'd rather not be working. When you work, there are all sorts of deadlines and pressures.”
Benicio del Toro

“In live stage, the actor lives.”
Peter Boyle

“Acting is one of those things that anybody can do because no one can learn it, but only a few people can really do because it's nothing you can learn.”
Kurt Fuller

“Drama and comedy, to me, are all about being surprising, coherent, and true, all at once.”
Tim Blake Nelson

“The most dynamic choices that you can make for a character are always the best ones.”
Peter Sarsgaard

“I still consider myself in training. Every time I work it's an educational process.”
Bill Nunn

“Sometimes the best way to make 'em laugh is to show 'em how you honestly feel.”
Jon Lovitz

“One of the hardest things about directing is just to be patient.”
Laurie Metcalf

“The Method: that's all it is, a technique to know what you're talking about and mean what you say.”
Austin Pendleton

“All the comedies I've done have been hard to film. Film is an anomalous environment for it because you don't know whether they're gonna laugh or not.”
Austin Pendleton

“Actors should be better poker players.”
Tom Everett Scott

“I always find that I have to be emotionally on my character's side for it to be convincing.”
Josh Hartnett

“Sometimes, rehearsals are not worth it if you do not have an accurate cast.”
Javier Cámara

“A film is a chain of very difficult decisions, and I think one of them is to choose an accurate cast.”
Javier Cámara

“There's a certain arrogance to an actor who will look at a script and feel like, because the words are simple, maybe they can paraphrase it and make it better.”
Mary Steenburgen