Great Actors Quotes

I'm a perfectionist, so doing a high quality, high caliber television show with great actors makes me feel like there's this whole world of television that I've never experienced. ~ Vinessa Shaw

I personally want to work with great directors and great actors. My thing is about being inspired. You want money to come, but money doesn't always come with great art. At the end of the day, it's about being satisfied with yourself as a human being. It's important to me to try to make that happen. ~ Scott Cohen

The difference between great actors and the rest of us isn't simply that they know how to make more out of less, but that, like lions at the watering hole, they will always take more than their share from the pool of available resources - extra air from the room, added knowledge from our faces. ~ John Burnham Schwartz

I want to work with great filmmakers and great actors and get better as an actor. ~ Bradley Cooper

I just get to go to work with such great actors who are so talented, especially Elizabeth (Perkins). You are so wonderful and kind and good and wonderful and sexy and great, and I just want to make out with all of you. ~ Mary-Louise Parker

When you hire great actors, you're lucky, so you just try to create an atmosphere where they can succeed and relax and take risks. You're happy that you get to watch them at the monitor and that your name is on the director's chair. ~ Ben Affleck

Josh Brolin is an actor that I really, really like; he's fantastic. I worked with him once; he's a really great actor. ~ Rob Zombie

Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor's art infinite. ~ Ellen Terry

The most important thing to keep in mind is the incredible diversity of talent that's out there - there are so many great actors from all over Asia, from Singapore and Hong Kong to the Philippines and Mainland China, not to mention many great Asian-American actors who are eager for fun and challenging roles. ~ Kevin Kwan

I really believe great actors, even with disease and age, can be great. ~ Olivier Martinez

I keep reading about people who want to be famous - it's not that they want to be great songwriters or great actors, they want to be celebrities. That is scary because you can be famous doing some really stupid things. ~ Barry Manilow

Listen, I like great actors. You can be a movie star without being a great actor - this has been proved several times - and I like my casts to have great actors. Acting is more important to me than being a star. ~ Jose Padilha

A great actor is simply just seeing him or herself, and reacting to what exists around them. ~ Shailene Woodley

I'm lucky to have worked with great actors, my whole career. ~ Elizabeth Banks

I love being around great actors and film-makers, and I try to hide the fact that I'm in awe of them. ~ Jessica Chastain

I want to be a great actor someday, and I've decided there's no use philosophizing; the only way is to work at my craft. ~ Al Pacino

To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves. ~ James Dean

I never will believe there is such a thing as a great actor. ~ Robert Mitchum

As a writer, all you want to do is write for great actors. That's all. ~ Amy Sherman-Palladino

It's about storytelling. The story is told through images. So with the cast, I had to make sure that the emotions were readable without sound ... I know some great actors, if you turn off the sound, you don't really know what they're saying. ~ Michel Hazanavicius

Great actors come with depth about how their character sees the world, and they completely defend it. They could defend it in a court of law, down to the reason the patient deserved this. ~ M. Night Shyamalan

I would love to have a part opposite a great actor - like, say, Pacino or De Niro or Hoffman. And to work with a top director. That's my dream. ~ Jon Lovitz

Comedy is more difficult than drama. I think it's really difficult to make someone laugh because people have very different comedic sensibilities. In drama, you can get away with being a great actor and surrounded by great actors and having good writing. But in comedy you have to listen and you have to perform with a certain rhythm, because if you don't, it's like playing a wrong note in the orchestra and you can hear the off key and it will fall flat and you won't get that instant response. ~ Aimee Garcia

Bridges - a master of subtle brilliance - plays the hell out of it. Not by showing off, but by going bone-deep into a character who only thinks he's running on empty. Crazy Heart may finally win him the Oscar that's unfairly eluded him and it offers the pleasure of watching a great actor at the peak of his form. ~ Peter Travers

If you're lucky enough to work with great actors and creative people, they're always just going to be who they are, so I don't think there's a difference between the Brits and the Americans. ~ Josh Dallas

Show me a great actor and I'll show you a lousy husband. Show me a great actress, and you've seen the devil. ~ W.C. Fields

First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent. ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

There's one thing better than having a great actor, and that's having a great actor who's never done this kind of role before and is hungry to do it. They're testing themselves every day. They want to get out of their trailer and get to work. ~ Sam Mendes

Look at how many great actors or entertainers have been lost to the world because they did a performance one night and that was it. With film, you capture that, it's shown all over the world and it's there forever. ~ Michael Jackson

The great actors always play themselves. ~ Scott Farris

I always get a little bit pissed off when stand-up comedy is not recognised as being as good a craft as being an actor. We give Oscars to people and it's like, 'Aw, this person is the greatest person on earth', but being an actor is pretty easy in comparison to stand-up comedy. It's no surprise that several stand-up comics have gone on to become great actors. I don't know any great actors that have gone on to become great stand-up comics. ~ Jim Jefferies

'King Lear,' I've been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime ... to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that's challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics. ~ Ian McKellen

I certainly don't feel there's a distinction to be made between a television and a film actor. I think there's a distinction between great actors and not so great actors. But I really think if you watch a person working in television give a wonderful performance, that person is f - ing great, because there is no time. ~ David Oyelowo

I've been really lucky to work with a lot of really great actors, so watching the films back, it's really important to admire the people that you were working with and see their full performance. ~ Juno Temple

The joy is when you work with great actors, it just comes to life in a way that you never even imagined. ~ Victor Garber

If I have enough ego to say I'm a writer, a director, a producer, and an actor, I should have the energy and the knowledge to write a scene for this great actor named Henry Fonda and direct him in it and have it work. ~ Peter Fonda

It makes me feel good that I can now sit there and go, I've worked with Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, all the great actors that I've worked with ... Sir Ben Kingsley. ~ Aaron Eckhart

One sign of a great actor is when he can be alone by himself on the screen, doing almost nothing, and producing one of a film's defining moments. ~ Roger Ebert

The great actors we had came from the actor-manager theaters. Not only did they create a team, they were the generals working with the soldiers. ~ Steven Berkoff

Every kid's dream is to be a great actor. ~ Matthew Lillard

You don't need great actors to do a 3D picture. All of this condescending stuff that they put out? "Oh, we will always need actors." Bullshit! They are able to take anybody and put some markers on them, and have them walk through an empty room. Then they paint in the background. ~ William Friedkin

Follow the wisdom of the great actor, James Cagney, you hit your mark, you look the other guy in the eye, and you tell the truth. ~ Larry Merchant

Great actors try to dismiss all ideas from their conscious mind in order to provide an experience that is real. ~ Mark Rylance

Directing is like cooking, it's like cuisine. You cannot make a great dish with bad ingredients. I have great actors, and I'm putting them together. That's all I'm doing. ~ Louis Leterrier

I just want to keep doing things completely different from the other. I just want to keep working with great people, great filmmakers and great actors and just building on that experience. ~ Christopher Egan

The great actors of history cannot be neatly tucked between the covers of a book and filed away like so many pressed botanical specimens. Their actions cannot be explained according to a specific timetable like the coming and going of so many trains. Although scholars may designate the beginning and ending of an era with exact precision, great historical events, particularly those that erupt suddenly and violently, build up slowly, and, once having begun, never end. Their effects linger long after the action faded from view. Like the tingling vibrations of a bell that we can still sense well after it has stopped ringing, Genghis Khan has long passed from the scene, but his influence continues to reverberate through our time. ~ Jack Weatherford

If you got a good imagination, a lot of confidence and you kind of know what you are saying, then you might be able to do it. I know a lot of colorful characters at home that would make great actors. ~ Jason Statham

Great actors who I want to work with-have such a misconception of who I am because of all the things that get said about me. ~ Lindsay Lohan

I think every actor is looking for a challenge, and to play something different, and to be a part of a project with other great actors. ~ Hilary Duff

Still, on 'Friends', we had some guest-stars who were less than spectacular, not the stunt-casting, but just regular guest-stars, and they weren't particularly great actors, but the material was so good that they scored. It's the writing. ~ Matt LeBlanc

I had to work with Ben Mendelsohn who's one of the great actors of our time. I had a lot of scenes with him and I was thrilled to be on the set with him; I just wanted to see how we were going to play it. ~ John Leguizamo

For me, what makes great actors, always is how truthful they are to the character and the story and the emotion that they're trying to tell. ~ Billy Boyd

At a certain level, great actors who are successful actors don't have to worry about it. They can just go for it because they believe in themselves. ~ Eric Balfour

Great writing attracts great actors. It attracts money. Without a great script, you have nothing. ~ Andy Garcia

You can have a bunch of great actors in a film, but if you don't have anyone telling a great story, it's a moot point. ~ Sarah Gadon

I mean, the actors that I admired were Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, an actress named Barbara Harris. And Greta Garbo. They were great actors. ~ Robert De Niro

I love talking about acting. I'm just such a fan of actors and filmmakers, and I try to choose roles where I get to talk to great actors about acting and learn. ~ Jessica Chastain

I always looked up to great actors and great films. A lot of my family would be like, 'Come on, you should get into these plays that are going on.' I'm like, 'Nah, nah, music's my thing.' I just fell into it. I moved to Atlanta, got with an agency out there, started doing little voiceover commercials, and it started getting kind of fun. ~ Jacob Latimore

Patchway had the enviable countryman's capacity, which is shared only by great actors, of standing by and saying nothing, and yet existing, large, present, and at ease. ~ Iris Murdoch

[Marlon] Brando's a giant on every level. When he acts it's as if he landed from another planet. A planet where they produce great actors. ~ Al Pacino

The truly great actors, like Charlize Theron, are just like, "I'm an actor. For hire. I show up, I do my job." There's no "I'm just waiting for the inspiration." They just do their jobs. They say, "Let's go over the scene a few times and get it." ~ Patton Oswalt

I'm lucky to just be a working actor. There are so many great actors out there and I'm just lucky to have gotten work. ~ Chris Messina

I'm a big Pacino fan. He's a great actor: so much passion and intensity. ~ Judah Friedlander

There's so many things I want to do. I want to work with great filmmakers, great actors, great scripts. And there's no reason for me to do anything short of that, because I'm 24, I don't have a family, I don't need to make tons of money, and I'm not dying to get famous. ~ Tobey Maguire

One guy told me I was a great actor, I just would never be on the cover of a magazine. ~ Ben Affleck

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

Moviegoers like to believe that those they have made stars are great actors. People used to say that Gary Cooper was a fine actor probably because when they looked in his face they were ready to give him their power of attorney. ~ Pauline Kael

Young girls of 13 or 12 are great actors. ~ Dario Argento

Matt Damon is a great actor, and he's from Boston, so we've got a few things in common. I've seen him throw a football, though. He definitely needs to work on that. ~ Tom Brady

People tend to think when you're on dramatic films, that it's all so heavy, but it's really not when you're working with great actors. ~ Maria Bello

As an actor, you know, I love not being pigeonholed, which is great. No one really knows who I am. So that's a positive. ~ Kathryn Hahn

I don't like improv at all. It terrifies me. I like to know exactly what I'm going to say. Being surprised does make me a better actor. Anytime I'm afraid of something that makes me rise to the occasion, it scares me, but it's what makes great actors - being in the moment. ~ Jesse Tyler Ferguson

I never pretended to be a great actor. ~ Joel McCrea

I watched a film with a very famous, great, great actor, I won't mention his name because everyone loves his memory, but I thought, "God he was acting a lot." Great actor, but nonstop acting. Wall to wall, fitted-carpet acting. ~ Anthony Hopkins

Acting is all about big hair and funny props ... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it. ~ Harold Ramis

Great actors like Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page and Samuel L. Jackson will go and do a videogame, because they understand that storytelling isn't just necessarily about filmmaking. ~ Andy Serkis

I think part of what makes someone a great actor is being able to walk into a situation emotionally available and open, and have all your guards down, and just have that level of trust and security in yourself to know that you could walk out on that limb with someone else and be safe. ~ Katie Aselton

Nine out of 10 times these guys will hit it-they'll be on something incredibly funny, but one out of 10, two out of 10, they'll fall flat on their faces. That's what makes them great actors: they take those chances, they don't play it safe. ~ Peter Farrelly

Great actors are so easy to direct. It's like they're big 747s that you just have to move left and right, and I don't really need to direct. I need to put them in the right costume, with the right haircut, in the right location, and with the right actor to act with. And then my job is almost done, with a great script, obviously. ~ Louis Leterrier

To see great actors bring it all to life us exhilerating ~ David Michod

When I was 11, I played the part of Rumpelstiltskin, and my teacher told me I would make a great actor. ~ Brian Blessed

I've worked with actors before where I was like, this is not working, and then I've seen their work on the screen and I've been like, Wow, that was a really great performance. Because there are a lot of elements with film. It's not like stage. It's not a kind of performance art anymore; it's a highly tuned kind of collaboration - a symphony. ~ Vincent Kartheiser

While great leaders may be as rare as great runners, great actors, or great painters, everyone has leadership potential, just as everyone has some ability at running, acting, and painting. ~ Warren G. Bennis

It's what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That's all and that's the hardest thing. ~ Morgan Freeman

I know many great actors who have small heads. ~ Catherine Keener

Truly great actors carry their characters in silence with them. They communicate without words the relationships that predate the movie. ~ Sam Mendes

Since I started making films, I've been a nut for dialogue. When I first saw Star Wars when I was 12 years old, I came home and recited all of the lines from it. Before I talked about Death Stars exploding and Tie Fighters I was talking about how funny Princess Leia was and how sarcastic Han Solo was. So to me that's always the most important thing, and I love hearing great actors say great lines. ~ Bryan Singer

The thing is, that great actors are everywhere. They're everywhere. They're doing good parts on television. They're doing television commercials. They're doing local theater. There are so few opportunities. ~ David Fincher

We're lucky enough, especially in these 'Madagascar' films, to be working with some of the best people in the industry, who are not only great actors, but great comedians and improvisers and filmmakers. And they then become a part of creating their characters. ~ Eric Darnell

I miss working with great actors, working with great directors. ~ Pauly Shore

Working at BBC, at the head of one of the top dramas, is a tradition for great actors. ~ Idris Elba

I love working with great actors. ~ Robert Rodriguez

I think Ryan Gosling is a really great actor who's meticulous about his work. And I'd love to have the guts that Johnny Depp has to actually go outside the box on a character. When he plays a character, he plays it in a way that nobody else would. ~ Ashton Kutcher

The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting. ~ Jessamyn West

When you're starting out, you know, you have to do something on a very limited budget. You're not going to be able to have great actors, and you're most likely not going to have a great script. ~ Peter Jackson

I always say that, if you have great actors and great storytelling and great monsters, and you mix them together, nine times out of 10, it explodes in your face. ~ Gregory Nicotero

My heroes are Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman. Those are the two actors that both do comedies and dramas, seamlessly. Also John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman. They're all just great actors, neither comedic nor dramatic. They're just great actors. ~ Jonah Hill

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 feel like I have just been really, really lucky to meet some of the most successful and great actors alive today. ~ Troye Sivan

My two great loves when I'm shooting are working with great actors and composing images. ~ Tom Hooper