Actors' quotes about acting and filmmaking

“For a director, the most challenging scenes are the dialogue scenes.”
Bruce Beresford

“Acting takes not only concentration, it takes creativity; it takes... your soul.”
Farrah Fawcett

“The world intrudes in my brain daily.”
Eric Bogosian

“I don't like to dwell all day over one scene as you do in a big feature.”
Jerry Orbach

“Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.”
Rosalind Russell

“A lot of times, I'll resist the temptation to visually define a movie until, one, I really understand just what the movie's about, and two, until I start talking to my cinematographer.”
Tom McCarthy

“Whenever you're telling a story about true-life events and about real people, there's a tremendous responsibility-slash-burden to get it right.”
Tom McCarthy

“I loved acting, and then acting led to writing, and writing led to directing.”
Tom McCarthy

“To portray a maniac offers a compelling challenge.”
Béla Lugosi

“Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he'd be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman.”
Béla Lugosi

“Nothing is forever in the theatre. Whatever it is, it's here, it flares up, burns hot, and then it's gone.”
Celeste Holm

“I love the luxury of the camera. The camera does so much for you. I like the secrets a camera can tell.”
Annette Bening

“I think you always learn something in every character you play onstage, either personally or creatively.”
Jared Harris

“What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise.”
Mary Pickford

“When you trust your director completely, then you can relax, be spontaneous, be malleable.”
Bo Derek

“I think of my relationship with any audience as a love affair. It lasts only a little while but I always look forward to a happy ending. For both of us.”
Dick Shawn

“Actors must practice restraint, else think what might happen in a love scene. ”
Cedrick Webster Hardwicke

“Action is drama.”
Sonny Chiba

“There's action only if there is danger. ”
Howard Hawks

“You don't know if the actors are going to have chemistry until you actually start filming. ”
Anne Fletcher

“I suppose it's easy to play a hypocritical politician with a smiling face; it's also quite gratifying to play. ”
Ian McDiarmid

“The good thing about having a co-director is, these movies take so long, that it’s nice to have a collaborator who you can bounce ideas off of, and he can have ideas that help moments, and have someone to have a conversation with and develop the film with.”
Chris Renaud

“It’s definitely a different process than live action, and the creative can do some shifts over the course of the production.”
Chris Renaud

“My job as the director is to make that as authentic as I can and not to disturb the revelry.”
Scott Hicks

“You can't make experimental work by copying past work. ”
Trey Parker