Good Actors Quotes

Do you think any of us know how to love?! Do you think anybody would ever do anything if they waited until they knew how to love?! Do you think that babies would ever get made or meals cooked or crops planed or books written or what God-damn-have-you? Do you think people would even get out of bed in the morning if they waited until they knew how to love? You have had too much therapy. Or not enough. God knows how to love, kiddo. The rest of us are only good actors.
Forget love. Try good manners. ~ Rebecca Wells

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

A good actor is someone who knows how to take the part and make it real and make it honest and be effective in it. If it's in a funny movie and, as long as they are cast in an appropriate way, humor will come from it. ~ Ivan Reitman

So, most of it was done over the phone. But one of the first things I did as a director, because it's one of the first things you should do, even though most don't, is to ask good actors who they think is right for the part. They know better than anybody. But without missing a beat Maggie said Pauline Collins. I didn't know Pauline because I hadn't seen Shirley Valentine, but then I saw this thing that she did with Woody Allen [You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger], in which she was wonderful as a psychic, and I said to her on the phone: "The dialogue seemed improvised." ~ Dustin Hoffman

The first thing I wrote was a one-act play that got accepted at a one-act play festival, and I was in it along with Nathan Lane and a couple of other very good actors. ~ Aaron Sorkin

Good actors go to emotional places where nobody else wants to go. ~ Arthur Penn

I experience psychic phenomena, so people think I must be crazy. But you have to be accessible and intelligent to be a good actor. I might not have gotten the best grades in school, but I have a very high level of emotional intelligence. You have to be open to receive. ~ Christine Ebersole

I think that most actors don't have very good opinions of themselves. ~ Charlotte Rampling

I am very direct and I tend to treat everyone exactly the same, which sometimes gets me in trouble because some movie stars feel like they should be treated differently. But, when you're dealing with good actors, they really appreciate it. ~ John Landis

I'm learning a lot about how to be one of the 'good' actors. You'd hope that it's natural to be a good person, and kind, but I'm learning how to deal with long, sometimes boring days. ~ Lily James

You know to me, being a good actor, the most important quality is you've got to love to play, and to just be open to anything. ~ Peter Berg

Unfortunately, most actors want to play off their own personal mystique and good looks and whatever, but that will only carry you but so far. ~ Joe Morton

I think good actors are born with a kind of native gift. When you study too much with an acting teacher, that gets taken away. You lose your sense of spontaneity. ~ Titus Welliver

Let's face facts, this is visual medium, there's a very high premium put on people who are good-looking. But the minute you rely on that you get yourself in trouble. You certainly don't make a career out of that anymore as an actor. ~ Alec Baldwin

Good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess. ~ John Cusack

There's a very small group of elite actresses who are my age, who people want to work with. It's not easy to get a good job with good actors. ~ Amanda Peet

What I always wanted to get seen as was as a good actor, when it was the acting I was doing. When I'm writing, I want to try to be seen as a good writer. Not as somebody with a particular idea to sell, or something like that. ~ Alan Alda

I hadn't studied theatre and I hadn't studied actor training or anything, but I did have a sense of movement and composition, and what the final product would be like, but luckily I had friends who were good actors, who would help me get them, who would get themselves to the place where a good director should get them to build characters. ~ Rob Urbinati

An actor who is good at comedy can also be very good at drama, but not necessarily vice versa. ~ Desi Arnaz

I think what makes a good actor's director is the same thing that makes a good director. Acting is just one of the trades necessary to make a movie. ~ Matt Damon

Jealous of the actors now, are we?" "What, of some fancy boy on the screen? Inconceivable." Oh, this was going to be good. ~ Ilona Andrews

I've said before that the common perception that all good actors should be good liars is exactly the opposite; only bad actors lie when they act. ~ Rob Lowe

A theater is such a revealing form of art, such a transparent and good actors, they're such powerful individuals. I always kind of dreamt that one day I will open my mouth on stage. ~ Mikhail Baryshnikov

Actors can be very precious about their work and their scenes, but I think good actors have a strong understanding of narrative and are very often not as precious about that stuff. They just can't be because they understand what makes for a better film, and that it's the job of the actor to work toward that, and then if you want you can go to acting class or workshops. But making movies is not workshops. ~ Kristen Stewart

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication. ~ Marlon Brando

If you would be a leader of men you must lead your own generation, not the next. Your playing must be good now, while the play ison the boards and the audience in the seats ... It will not get you the repute of a good actor to have excellencies discovered in you afterwards. ~ Woodrow Wilson

I love that process in which there is no safety net. Then the actor also can allow mistakes, because there's no such a thing as a mistake. You're working with good actors, that thing that starts as a mistake becomes actually the life of what is going to follow in the scene. I find that it is fantastic, and for me it is easier than for the actors. ~ Alfonso Cuaron

I was never ambitious to be a good actor. I just love doing it and I seem to be quite suited for it. ~ Katherine Helmond

Evan Handler is not only a fine actor, he's a damn good writer. It's Only Temporary is wise and funny and as righteously indignant as it is endearingly self-effacing. In what may be a literary first, the book actually left me wanting more. ~ Meghan Daum

A lot of good actors tend to be quite introverted as people. ~ Antony Sher

I just want to do the best possible job with everything that I do. But I'm far more concerned with being a good father as opposed to being a good actor because that's what's really going to matter. ~ Mark Wahlberg

Obama is a very good actor. He knows how to play it. And he is very adept at creating this 'Obama' - this character who is there whenever the world needs something. ~ Jon Voight

Good actors, especially when they know their character, will come in and either tell you in advance that they have an idea, or in the middle of the rehearsal or the scene they'll let it loose and you go, 'Ah that's great.' ~ Denis Leary

Some stars like to hide behind the whole idea of acting. But really good actors are not hiding at all. They're not afraid to be disliked, to be a little unsavoury. ~ Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

All FILM directors are good actors, because you have to understand actors in order to program them. ~ Henry Johnson Jr

You'd be surprised how much being a good actor pays off. ~ Ronald Reagan

When you've got good actors, they're going to come up with good stuff, but you're never quite sure how the dynamics are going to work between them. ~ Martin McDonagh

All good actors are unpredictable, and a little crazy in a good way, because they feel more secure playing other people than themselves. ~ Sylvester Stallone

I know that I'm better as an actor when I'm working with a good actor. I think anytime you're working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor. ~ Ben Stiller

Good actors, you always know what they're thinking. That's why they're good actors. ~ Ron Livingston

I agree when others say I am underrated as an actor ... When you give super-hit films, then only you are considered as a good actor. At least, that is how it is there in our industry. I think you need to be successful to be appreciated. ~ Shahid Kapoor

Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done. ~ James Dean

Indian actors, because of the format of our stories, need to be good actors, and be able to perform emotional sequences, do a bit of comedy, dance and singing, action, because all of this forms just one film. In many ways I'd say there are greater demands on Indian actors than there are on Hollywood. ~ Amitabh Bachchan

Actors are born, good actors are trained. Dancers are born, good dancers are trained. ~ Mithun Chakraborty

Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors. ~ Gene Hackman

Perhaps teachers must be good actors where lessons are concerned, but in life outside the class, we mustn't hide from our pupils our individual spirits. ~ Larisa Kuznetsova

I had to learn that a good actor, like an iceberg, reveals only a small part of his ability on the surface. You suggest; you don't serve on a platter. You hold back. You don't expose it all to view. That's the way to put the audience's imagination to work. ~ Lilli Palmer

I know a lot of really good actors - tons, just tons - who I still don't know why they don't work all the time because they're that good. It's just a weird business, and I know a lot of actors who shouldn't be working, but they work all the time. ~ Kevin Dillon

I think there's that weird bastardization where musical theatre actors are treated as almost like vaudevillians or circus performers - that we're somehow not good actors because we sing and dance. ~ Laura Benanti

There's no such thing as good voices. Because there's no such thing as bad voices. There are only good actors and bad actors ... ~ Bob Bergen

Eighty percent of a picture is writing, the other twenty percent is the execution, such as having the camera on the right spot and being able to afford to have good actors in all parts. ~ Billy Wilder

If it's well written and well directed and you've got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It's very rare. ~ John Lithgow

It turns out that good actors can make anything believable. ~ Paul Haggis

I made a picture called Super Mario Bros., and my six-year-old son at the time - he's now 18 - he said, 'Dad I think you're probably a pretty good actor, but why did you play that terrible guy King Koopa in Super Mario Bros?' And I said, 'Well Henry, I did that so you could have shoes,' and he said, 'Dad, I don't need shoes that badly.' ~ Dennis Hopper

I think a lot of good actors - for instance, Gary Sinise - have no training. His training was really entirely on his feet. I suppose you have to have an instinct for it. ~ Glenne Headly

I think all good actors are personalities. If they're not, they're not stars. What makes you a star is horsepower. ~ Katharine Hepburn

If I spread myself too thin, I'm not a good actor, I'm not a good mother, and I'm just really high-strung - and everybody hates me. ~ Katherine Heigl

It's something that I think I'm going to have to fight against for most of my career, for people to take me seriously as an actor as opposed to a good-looking guy. It's not what I want to be known as. ~ Armie Hammer

Singers come and go, but if you're a good actor, you can last a long time. ~ Elvis Presley

I started out as an actor, but I forced myself to be a writer, even though I wasn't very good at it and had never written. I don't think I ever passed an English course in my life. My first eight to 10 scripts were pretty horrendous, but I stayed at it, stayed at it, and stayed at it, until I eventually found a voice and a subject like Rocky that people were interested in. ~ Sylvester Stallone

There has got to be more to life than being a really, really, ridiculously good actor. ~ Gary Busey

I think all great actors - and I don't classify myself as one of them, incidentally - but I think all great actors listen well and I've learned that from a lot of the very good actors with whom I've worked - to really listen to what people say. ~ John Frankenheimer

I think any good singer needs to be a good actor. You have to be able to tell the story. ~ Erica Schroeder

If people perceive you as a good actor then they'll wish for you to be a good actor and they'll root for you when they watch you, but if you come out and you're going to clubs every night people don't root for you anymore. ~ Shia Labeouf

Good actors never use the script unless it's amazing writing. All the good actors I've worked with, they all say whatever they want to say. ~ Jessica Alba

I think the key that differentiates the good actors from the mediocre ones that are still trying to come up, is that the good ones know how to listen. It's like being in a jazz band. They know how to listen to what the other musicians are playing. And where to come in and where to sit out. That's my approach to being in an ensemble cast and working with any kind of actors in a scene. ~ Wesley Snipes

I'm not necessarily a good actor, but once people start saying you are, you are. And I know that that's a truism, and there's obviously nothing important in that particular statement, but it's really about the fact that people create you as a good actor. ~ Alexander Siddig

Here's the funny thing about the response I've been aware of to my dating famous people: It's been very negative. I'm either not good-looking enough, not a good enough actor or not successful enough for these people. ~ Dax Shepard

I want to work with great directors. I want to work on good material with good actors. I've probably done 20 movies at this point and a lot of independents. It's been an incredible ride and I love it and I'm just going to keep going and doing what I'm doing. ~ Famke Janssen

It's funny: I put money into short films, and I put really good actors in it, and I write some stuff that's really funny, and I'll get, like, a million views. But to the right of me, there will be a video of a kitten that falls into a toilet bowl, and it's three seconds long, and it will get 25 million views. ~ Ben Schwartz

It is hard to get good actors who also do television, ads and films. Theatre requires six weeks of rehearsal for a play. ~ Lillete Dubey

In TV, sometimes you get lost in the fog of the scene, and when you're working with such good actors, they can bring you into the scene. ~ Adriano Giannini

It's more fun to play a good character with a good director and good actors around you. That's what makes it fun, and the more variety, the better. ~ Salma Hayek

There are two jobs. There is being an actor, and there is being a celebrity. Some people are really good at both. Some people are really good celebrities and terrible actors, and some people are really good actors and terrible celebrities. Hopefully, I am a really good actor and an OK celebrity. ~ Tim Daly

I look for something that grabs me and that's heartfelt, and that's coming from a good place. I want to work with good actors and with directors that I can learn from. ~ Harry Treadaway

I stopped acting when I was about nineteen, twenty, when I got thrown out of college. I did act for about ten years. I don't know. I suspect I'm still a reasonably good actor, but I don't really know that I want to get on the stage again ... and having to say all those boring words by me over and over again ... I don't know if I want to do that. Also, I like a certain amount of freedom of movement, and if you're acting, you're stuck in one place for a long time. Having said that, I will probably be onstage next fall. ~ Edward Albee

I do think that good actors can do any part. It doesn't mean that they are the best ones to do it. ~ Richard Gere

All good actors are very bright. You can't be stupid and a good actor. You may be inarticulate, you may not be highly educated, but all good actors are quick-witted, some of them dazzlingly so. All you do is guide them. ~ Richard Eyre

The trick to being a good actor is getting so involved in your character that the camera disappears, the 50 bored guys eating doughnuts disappear, friends disappear. To get to that point when you don't have to think about it, you're just acting and reacting in those circumstances. ~ Val Kilmer

I know in Britain with 'Doctor Who' all the classic actors, and the people who you'd really want to, work on the show. I like that the fact that 'Torchwood' has actors that want to be involved from the stage. It has raised our game, and I'm just happy for good actors who want to be in sci-fi shows who love the genre. ~ Burn Gorman

I like to think in camera, but at the last minute the most important thing is that there is something happening between the actors. But good actors can have a lot of scenes going around them but sometimes it sort of helps the performance because it takes their mind off of who they are supposed to be. ~ Audrey Tautou

I became an actor because I didn't know what else to do. Academically, I wasn't good. ~ Anthony Hopkins

Do you think that the people on reality T.V. shows are kind of good actors? I mean they would have to be! You can't ignore all the cameras and, you know, the whole situation of being on a reality show... But here is what I'm wondering. Do you think that they think of themselves as actors? Or do you think that they are living their lives behind an impenetrable shield? Like their entire approach to life is the same as an actor's approach to a performance? So when they had to act natural in an unnatural situation it was sort of no big deal. ~ Kevin Hooyman

Good actors are a dime a dozen, but I want actors that are gonna be part of my team and collaborative. ~ Joe Pantoliano

I've always thought that when anyone receives an award for acting they should always thank their fellow actors, because the only way you're going to deliver your best performance is when you have other good actors on the set supporting you and being very present for you even when the camera is not on them. ~ Halle Berry

I want to play everything. I want to be like Christian Bale: I want to be able to be Batman and then, like, his character in 'The Fighter.' That is what is so impressive about really good actors, that they can be character actors and leading men at the same time. ~ Ansel Elgort

That's where I'd like to be: when the business says here's a good actor who is marketable so we can use him. Just that. ~ Sam Waterston

I've never agreed with the conventional wisdom that 'actors are great liars.' If more people understood the acting process, the goals of good actors, the conventional wisdom would be 'actors are terrible liars,' because only bad actors lie on the job. The good ones hate fakery and avoid manufactured emotion at all costs. Any script is enough of a lie anyway. (What experience does any actor have with flying a spacecraft? Killing someone?) What's called for, what actors are hired for, is to bring reality to the arbitrary. ~ Rob Lowe

I think any good actor is an anarchist. They have to be. ~ Sam Rockwell

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor. ~ Scott Speedman

I'm frequently surprised, sometimes bugged off, and sometimes happy, depending on the actor. It's a fact of life that just as often as not an actor can breathe life into a line as he can destroy it by misinterpretation, and I've been blessed frequently by having good actors. ~ Rod Serling

Everyone brings their own particular skill set to the job, and acting training can work for a lot of actors, and it can't. I've seen a lot of really good actors go into acting schools and then come out a little bit corrupted. ~ Xavier Samuel

Acting, music, painting ... it's very subjective. So what I might think is a great actor, you might think is not a very good actor at all. ~ Billy Boyd

I think good actors - good, collaborative actors who see themselves as leaders in a given production - can and should offer ideas that have nothing to do with wanting to direct themselves. ~ Joe Mantello

As an actor I'm part of a long line of character people you can take back to the silent movies. There's always the little guy who's the sidekick to the tall, good-looking guy who gets the girl. ~ Curtis Armstrong

I think good actors can sort of see into people and immediately you have a chemistry with them or not. It's like an affair with no mess. You don't actually consummate it, but you get to pretend, imagine what it would be like. ~ John Cusack

I think that you always learn something from working with good actors. ~ Marion Cotillard

They dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience. ~ Giordano Bruno

Fear had driven two enemies into each other's arms and he smiled at that thought. 'They fear me more than they do each other and that is good' he thought. ~ Raymond E. Feist

I wasn't a good girl.
I wasn't a bad girl.
I was their girl. ~ Amelia LeFay