Michael Shurtleff Quotes

Acting in theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

Everyone thinks romance is weak. Yet romance is everyone's secret dream-it's why we're alive.

Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes before.

Whatever you decide is your motivation in the scene, the opposite of that is also true and should be in it.

Creating relationship is the heart of acting. It is basic. It is essential.

Consistency is the death of good acting.

The actor needs to find out what the basic fight is in every character in every scene.

Actors, who should pride themselves on their singularity, are forever trying to be someone else. It isn't necessary for you, the actor, to like yourself - self-love isn't easy to come by for most of us - but you must learn to trust who you are. There is no one else like you.

Most actors make themselves unhappy by searching for their sanity, by insisting on their normalcy; it's a grave mistake.

Conflict is what creates drama. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.

Every scene is a love scene. The actor should ask the question: 'Where is the love?'

An actor must make his needs (goals, wants, objectives) so strong that he is willing to interfere with the other actor in order to get what he needs. Interfering means getting in their way so that what you want is stronger than what they want.

Conflict is drama.

Competition [in a scene] is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first-rate actors.

No matter how much we know about the other person, there is always something going on in that other heart and that other head that we don't know but can only ponder. And no matter how we explain ourselves to someone else, no matter how open we are, there is always still something inexplicable, something hidden and unknown in us, too.

There's only one reason why a character drinks: to seek confrontation. To fight for what they want in ways normally denied them.

To go into acting is like asking for admission to an insane asylum. Anyone may apply, but only the certifiably insane are admitted.

That's why there's so little romance in our world now: everyone thinks romance is weak.

If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going.

Humor [in a scene] is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped off the 59th Street Bridge.

We don't live for realities, but for the fantasies, the dreams of what might be. If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going ... When you are acting, don't settle for anything less than the biggest dream for your character's future.

The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself.

Take nothing for granted. Make an emotional discovery as often as you can find one in every scene. Ask yourself: What is new?