Actor Quotes

I like my films to have a certain amount of realism - something that's thought provoking and intelligently written. More than the amount on the pay cheque, I look for a level of respectability as an actor. ~ Arjun Rampal

I'm not really much of an actor, so when I started on 'The Daily Show,' I was just trying to adopt the faux authority of a newsperson. Having a British accent definitely gave me a sonic leg up on that because there is a faux authority to the British accent in and of itself. ~ John Oliver

I think, as an actor, and particularly if you are playing the lead in something, you have to view yourself as the head of department for the cast. All of the other departments are accountable and have somebody at the helm who is leading them all the time, and I don't think that the actors should be any different. ~ Daniel Radcliffe

To stand up on the stage is to say to many people: Look at me. How can you do that without speaking the only truth you know? There is no such thing as an uncommitted actor. ~ Judith Malina

I've always believed that the director does whatever the hell he wants. That's what you sign on for as an actor - I can't stand it when you have actors who are trying to leverage directors into doing things they don't want to do. ~ Christian Bale

As an actor, you don't want to be typecast, because Hollywood is so quick to put you in things that you've succeeded in before. ~ Danny McBride

If you want to protect yourself as an actor, always work with good people ~ George Clooney

Once you sign on as an actor, you know, you don't go to the editing room, you don't see how they cut, you don't see how they score, you don't see how they cast the rest of the movie. ~ Albert Brooks

Shakespeare teaches you how to act. You come out of this process as a better actor. It's just the nature of the words he writes. ~ Condola Rashad

What I learned as an actor was the only way you could really do August Wilson's work, you had to leave an ounce of your essence on that stage, ... Otherwise it was impossible. ~ Charles S. Dutton

What motivates every other decision artistically or technically is the acting. This is what motivates everything. Never can a camera move be incompatible with the emotion of the actor at that moment. The movement, the style, the atmosphere, everything is dictated by the actor. ~ Xavier Dolan

As an actor, I've grown considerably. For example, it's taken me years to get comfortable doing a romantic scene and dancing on stage in front of a live audience. I do it a lot better than I ever did. I've really opened up a lot. And I'm glad I have because I'm being appreciated for it. ~ Sanjay Dutt

That's an amazing gift as an actor - to be able to say I have an audience in so many countries in the world and that people know my work. ~ Elisabeth Harnois

I've got a massive actor girl crush on Carey Mulligan, so I'd love to be buddies with her. She just oozes this joyful, natural innocence and always brings a nice emotional depth to her character. ~ Holliday Grainger

I'm trying to get an acting gig on 'CSI' or something like that, so we'll see how that works out. I'm a singer, definitely not an actor, so I just follow directions. ~ Jason Aldean

I didn't intend to become an actor. ~ Anthony Quinn

I've always said that I benefit, as an actor, from not having the illusion of security. ~ Hal Sparks

Playing a plainer role means everything is dependent on the credentials of the actor, not the fact that they are as pretty as Julia Roberts. People start to look at their talent rather than their appearance. And playing the ugly part often means less time in the make-up chair, which is a great benefit on set. ~ Laura Carmichael

I'm a method actor. ~ Seann William Scott

If you know why someone is doing what they're doing, why they're behaving the way they are, then that's your job to reveal that, and often that's situational. The storytelling does that, and then some of it's your job as an actor to make that subtext come to life. ~ Cate Blanchett

The big challenge for me was just trying to ignore the embarrassment of being an actor. It's a pretty embarrassing thing to do. You've got people pointing cameras at you and hundreds of people watching you, as you're trying to be great. And often, almost every time, you're not. ~ Chris Pratt

I am a pretty good actor. Most of my friendships are based on the fact that I pretend to be outgoing and funny in social situations, but when I get home, I tend to isolate myself because I am actually somewhat bipolar and introverted. ~ Reese Roper

Beauty can break a heart and make it think about something more spiritual than the mindless routine we go through day after day to get by. Francis was a singer, a poet, an actor. He knew that the imagination was a stealth way into people's souls, a way to get all of us to think about God. For him, beauty was its own apologetic. That's why a church should care about the arts. They inspire all of us to think about the eternal. ~ Ian Morgan Cron

I don't come to work as an actor. There are many directors who can direct without ever having acted and do a great job and connect with their actors and lead them to excellent performances without themselves having had an acting background. ~ Abdellatif Kechiche

When you come onto the set, everything should be focused around your character and you should stay in the pocket, as much as possible. Every actor has their own process. For me, I really need to stay in the pocket. ~ Vin Diesel

Dakota Fanning is a child, but she is a wonderful actor. I don't know what a child actor is. She's an actor who's a child. ~ Denzel Washington

I spent hours apart by myself, taking stock of where I stood, mentally, on this my thirtieth birthday. It came to me queerly how, four years ago, I had meant to be a general and knighted, when thirty. Such temporal dignities were now in my grasp, only that my sense of falsity of the Arab position had cured me of crude ambition: while it left me craving for good repute among men. This craving made me profoundly suspect my truthfulness to myself. Only too good an actor could so impress his favorable opinion. Here were the Arabs believing me, Allenby and Clayton trusting me, my bodyguard dying for me: and I began to wonder if all established reputations were founded, like mine, on fraud. ~ T.E. Lawrence

I'm an actor. That's what I'm gifted at. It's what makes me breathe. ~ Samantha Morton

An actor is somebody who communicates someone else's words and emotions to an audience. It's not me. It's what writers want me to be. ~ Maggie Smith

I'm just an actor. Just a stupid actor. ~ Vincent Kartheiser

When you're in the editing room, as a director, you get the opportunity to look at your work. As a writer, you can rewrite. But as an actor, unless you're watching playback, you really rely on the director to help you. ~ Zoe Kazan

I have to say as an actor I have been inspired by so many British actors throughout the years. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio

It's kind of interesting to be a director who is all of a sudden being an actor playing an agent. This is my whole world! ~ Mark Rydell

The virtue you would like to have, assume it is already yours, appropriate it, enter into the part and live the character just as the great actor is absorbed in ... the part he plays. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most actors will tell you that it takes a while to figure out what you want to be because we just want to do everything we see on TV and don't know that 'actor' is a job yet. ~ Rachelle Lefevre

That's really just the worst part of life really, you get bracketed somewhere and the next thing you know people are saying, 'No. No. That's not the type. Get me so and so.' I'm not a type. I'm an actor. ~ Morgan Freeman

Working out and working as an actor have gone hand in hand - I always feel more prepared if I know I have done a workout. It gives me confidence - and peace of mind. ~ Sebastian Stan

My dad has always been very proud of me but I think I have exceeded his expectations. When I told him I wanted to be an actor and moved to New York City, I think he assumed I would be playing the guitar on the subway and collecting spare change in my guitar case. The fact that I'm not doing that means that I'm a huge success. ~ Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Perhaps I've been perceived more as a romantic comedy actor, but overall, I enjoy acting in any shape or form. ~ Jaime Camil

But I'm an actor and I like to just keep working. ~ M. Emmet Walsh

One person goes off and works in Houston the other person goes off to London and you're on the phone to each other and somebody is paying you to kiss somebody else. It's very bizarre being an actor. ~ Ted Danson

My only job as an actor is to try and understand the character and, to the best of my ability, bring this character to life. ~ Patrick Warburton

I've learned from every director I've worked with. Everybody's style is very different, and I always say that being an actor is the best film school that I could ever go to. ~ Lake Bell

When you are an actor, you have to stay inside this world, but when you are with the crew, on the outside, you are in the dirt, working through all the issues. It's just a different way of working, and I think I preferred it. ~ Angelina Jolie

There's a large chunk of me in all the parts. As an actor, I got involved largely because I want to let things out. The best acting is that that is most real and the only way to do that, is to genuinely feel it. ~ James Franco

I've just gotten to do a lot of very different things, and as an actor, that's what you want. ~ Lee Norris

I'm always drawn towards the darker stuff, because I think it's just a lot more interesting. But it's also good fun doing the comedy, and I think that's why 'Misfits' has been great in that way, as you get a really good balance. I think it's best to try and do everything as an actor, really. ~ Iwan Rheon

I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised. ~ Brendan Coyle

The photographer discovers himself/herself being photographed and we can guess he is uncomfortable. Unsuccessfully he/she tries to recompose his posture and to look like a photographer taking photos. But no, he is and continues to be a spectator. The momentous fact of being photographed leads him to becoming an actor. And, as always, actors must assume a role, which is only an elegant way of avoiding to say they must choose sides, choose a faction, take an option. ~ Subcomandante Marcos

In 90% of cases, you can start with one of the two most effective ways to open a speech: ask a question or start with a story.

Our brain doesn't remember what we hear. It remembers only what we "see" or imagine while we listen.

You can remember stories. Everything else is quickly forgotten.

Smell is the most powerful sense out of 4 to immerse audience members into a scene.

Every sentence either helps to drive your point home, or it detracts from clarity. There is no middle point.

If you don't have a foundational phrase in your speech, it means that your message is not clear enough to you, and if it's not clear to you, there is no way it will be clear to your audience.

Share your failures first. Show your audience members that you are not any better, smarter or more talented than they are.

You are not an actor, you are a speaker. The main skill of an actor is to play a role; to be someone else. Your main skill as a speaker is to be yourself.

People will forgive you for anything except for being boring. Speaking without passion is boring. If you are not excited about what you are talking about, how can you expect your audience to be excited?

Never hide behind a lectern or a table. Your audience needs to see 100% of your body.

Speak slowly and people will consider you to be a thoughtful and clever person.

Leaders don't talk much, but each word holds a lot of m ~ Andrii Sedniev

Everyone wants to label me, but I don't want to be labeled as a rapper or a movie actor. ~ Riff Raff

I give myself homework when I have an audition. I give myself goals, and that's how I check how I'm doing. It can be something simple like 'listen,' or 'find your feet.' And then afterward it's an assessment, so in a way it's not about booking the job or not. It's about what I learned as an actor about that character. ~ Lupita Nyong'o

When I was growing up, my parents asked me what I wanted to do, and I said that I wanted to live in Springfield. They were like, "Well, that's not how it works. There is an actor who play Homer, and someone who writes what Homer says." So, I was like, "Well, I want to write what Homer says." ~ Jonah Hill

As an actor, you're never busy enough. ~ Bryan Callen

I always knew I'd be more of a character actor than a leading man, and I always wanted to take that and run with it. ~ B. D. Wong

I never think of myself as a celebrity - or even an actor, actually. I think of myself as a writer-director. ~ Ricky Gervais

It makes it fun. When an actor plays a character, you want what that character wants. Otherwise it doesn't look authentic. So I really want to defeat Jimmy - I mean Jimmy as the character. ~ Alan Alda

Rumours are a part and parcel of being an actor, and I am okay with that. ~ Uday Kiran

In terms of jobs, I'm an actor. There's gotta' be depth there. I'd never say yes to something just to play the hot guy. That's not what I'm interested in. ~ Bill Skarsgard

If the actor has a problem, I can just go in and fix it right away. I think it speeds up the process. ~ Tommy Wirkola

As the actor, you can't be worried about the scene that you're going to playing two days from now. You think about what's going on, right now and in the moment. That's what you worry about. Everything is right then and there. In the end, all of the pieces come together, thanks to the editing and James Gunn. ~ Michael Rooker

We remember Ronald Reagan as a man who maximized his gifts from an unknown to an actor to a Governor to the leader of the Free World. ~ Richard Burr

'Normal Heart' was my most transcendent moment as an actor. ~ Ellen Barkin

The first time I made myself up, I was looking at my reflection in the mirror and it wasn't me looking back. It allowed me to do things I couldn't do as myself. I found out how powerful that was and how much that can mean to an actor. ~ Rick Baker

I literally fell into this business. I never came down one day and said, "Atticus' thought of the day ... I want to be an actor!" My mom and I would always read story books out loud together and I loved doing character voices and playing with my voice. ~ Atticus Shaffer

Ultimately, however, the script an actor enlivens is someone else's words. ~ Debra Winger

I suspected the movies, considering her cheap crack about me being a ten-cent Clark Gable, which was ridiculous. He simpers, to begin with, and to end with no one can say I resemble a movie actor, and if they did it would be more apt to be Gary Cooper than Clark Gable. ~ Rex Stout

I had spent my entire career not wanting to talk about weight, not wanting to deal with it, wanting to be an actor first. ~ Sara Rue

As much as I'd love to be a successful actor, the thought of being recognised in the street is petrifying. ~ Holliday Grainger

God, could that dopey girl dance. Buddy Singer and his stinking band was playing 'Just One of Those Things' and even they couldn't ruin it entirely. It's a swell song. I didn't try any trick stuff while we danced
I hate a guy that does a lot of show-off tricky stuff on the dance floor
but I was moving her around plenty, and she stayed with me. The funny thing is, I thought she was enjoying it, too, till all of a sudden she came out with this very dumb remark. "I and my girl friends saw Peter Lorre last night," she said. "The movie actor. In person. He was buyin' a newspaper. He's cute."
"You're lucky," I told her. "You're really lucky. You know that?" She was really a moron. But what a dancer. ~ J.D. Salinger

When you are an actor, you bring a tool in your craft but you are not that person. ~ Pam Grier

I didn't become an actor until I was an old man of 28 or 29. I declared to the world that I was an actor. Nobody heard me, but I did declare it. ~ Peter Falk

I think early on it's important to put that at the back of your mind and make your own choices. Sometimes you do pick the same choices, just as a matter of course - not because someone else did it first, but because it was the best choice to make. But any actor worth his salt makes something their own. ~ Jacki Weaver

I was working in computers when this stranger approached me out of the blue, saying I should become an actor. I took it as a gift from God, because I had been praying for clarity about what He wanted me to do, since I wasn't happy in computers. ~ Nate Parker

An actor works with their soul and their thought. ~ Monica Bellucci

But as an actor you do want to challenge yourself and step outside what you have done in the past and that what I like to do, I like to jump around and try different things and stretch myself. ~ Mary Elizabeth Winstead

I'm a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don't look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once. ~ Curtis Armstrong

Tim [Omundson] is just so wonderfully delicious. He has the sexiest beard on television. He's such a fabulous actor, and a great character. ~ J. Robbins

It is important to make your own stuff. Even if you are not an actor, it is important to not stop involving yourself as a creative person. ~ Ajay Naidu

An actor is something less than a man, while an actress is something more than a woman. ~ Richard Burton

As an actor, you express certain things because they need to be expressed, and then you don't really feel a need to do it again. I want to feel something else, you know? ~ Chiwetel Ejiofor

Fighting the wild branches of a haunted tree is not something that every actor is confident enough to attack, literally and figuratively. ~ Mick Garris

It's a very odd thing with Hollywood, where you do stand-up, you're good at it, then they go, 'How would you like to be a horrible actor?' Then you say, 'All right, that sounds good. I'll do that.' ~ Norm MacDonald

My brother is nine years older than I am. He's a psychology professor, I'm an actor, and so we look at life in two different ways. We thought it would be interesting to come together and take our unique perspectives and share them with everybody else. ~ Matt Czuchry

I've been lucky enough - well, maybe unlucky enough - to have had a lot of friends who have had their ups and downs. And for an actor, that's good. Life experience in any regard is good. So I've seen a lot and I've had my own experiences. ~ Chris Evans

In general all celebrities, no matter how they became a celebrity, or if they're an actor or singer or a model, whatever it is - that people are people and people have problems and there's nothing wrong with that at all. ~ Rachel Uchitel

As an actor you have to get used to receiving gentle little pies in the face. ~ James Purefoy

I was born in Mumbai, but I grew up in England, and then my adulthood has been in the States. I'm an American stuffed with an English person with an Indian person inside. I feel like those things kind of inform me in some way, which I think helps me as an actor. ~ Aasif Mandvi

I think people involved in politics make good actors. Acting and politics both involve fooling people. People like being fooled by actors. When you get right down to it, they probably like being fooled by politicians even more. A skillful actor will make you think, but a skillful politician will make you never have to think. ~ Donna Brazile

For me to want to be an actor was an improbable idea. I wasn't beautiful or pretty in any conventional way. I wasn't an ingenue at 22. But I was always certain of it and certain of its power. I felt the power when I went to the theater at 9, 10, 12 and 14. ~ Linda Hunt

Years ago - I used to be an actor - I was in a production of Vaclav Havel's 'Temptation,' and when we started rehearsals, he was in prison. When we closed the show, he was running for president. And it felt incredibly timely and important and also this lucky thing. ~ Kelly Sue DeConnick

I don't know how it is now but the assistant stage manager had to understudy several parts. You had to be ready to go on at any time if the actor couldn't make it to the play. I didn't think anything of it. ~ Glenn Ford

Any comic is a very good actor. Look at Don Rickles. He is saying the same joke every night for 20 years and making it look like he just thought of it. ~ Joan Rivers

You have more creative freedom with writing, in certain ways, because you can create everything that happens. But, as an actor you also have creative freedom because you don't so much focus on what has to move the story along, and only on how your character is reacting to situations. ~ John Francis Daley

I love to play different roles. That's just the kind of actor I am. ~ Idris Elba

Some of the things I've been in are comedic, but I don't get considered for true comedies because I'm a 'dramatic' actor. ~ Noah Emmerich

I have to tell you, you can't have an ego when you're an actor. A lot of actors have them, but in reality most of those people are just sensitive artists dying for a hug and a compliment. ~ Josh Brolin

The West has never been all of the world that matters. The West has not been the only actor on the stage of modern history even at the peak of the West's power (and this peak has perhaps now already been passed) ... It has not been the West that has been hit by the world; it has been the world that has been hit - and hit hard - by the West. ~ Arnold J. Toynbee

I'm a full-time dad; I'm a part-time actor. ~ Freddie Prinze, Jr.

That has been one of the best, most rewarding things about being an actor - traveling throughout the world, meeting all kinds of different people and learning about other cultures. ~ Michael Ansara