Quotes about Actors and Acting

Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I'm paid to tell elaborate lies.

I think that with any emotion - fear, love, nervousness - if the actor's feeling it, then the audience feels it.

Acting is stupid. Everybody's like, "How can you remain with a level head?" And I'm like, "Why would I ever get cocky? I'm not saving anybody's life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I'm making movies."

Wave after wave of love flooded the stage and washed over me, the beginning of the one great durable romance of my life.

I became an actor so I can show you characters and never have to show you me.

I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.

Becoming an actor is like becoming a father. It's not hard to become one. Making a life of it is the challenge.

As an actor, you are either emulating someone else, or some version of yourself.

I've always been a bit of a self-doubter. I think a lot of actors are.

I told my parents I wanted to be an actor, and they were getting ready for a life of unemployment.

I never took acting classes, but I knew I could do it based on the skill with which I lied to my parents on a regular basis.

The better the actor, the less you know about his life.

In acting you can pretend to be someone else and I like that.

As far as I can tell, most actors' main motivation is self-doubt and neuroses.

You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does.

I know I walk a fine line between being a respected actor and being what they call a sex symbol.

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

Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.

I veer away from trying to understand why I act. I just know I need to do it.

The point of acting is to pretend you're someone else and sell a story.

When you act, your whole body is the instrument.

I think I may have become an actor to hide from myself. You can escape into a character.

You don't pay an actor to act. An actor will do that for free because we love to act. You pay an actor to wait.

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

I'm a con artist in that I'm an actor. I make people believe something is real when they know perfectly well it isn't.

Working with amazing people, you continue to learn and develop yourself, as an actor and as a person.

I'm an actor... I do a job and I go home. Why are you interested in me? You don't ask a truck driver about his job.

You have no idea how fragile an actor's self-worth is.

As an actor, the biggest compliment you can get, in my book is for someone to believe that you're the character.

A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly.

I have a very schoolish approach to acting. I like to do my homework, know more about the character, and study it. It's all about the craft.

I am looking for strong characters rather than being just a pretty girl. Actresses can do so much more than looking good.

An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.

Every actor and actress is possessed of the absorbing passion to create something distinctive and unique.

When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are.

At the beginning of every role I take, I have to start from basics and build it up. It's like a new construction.

Actors, you know, they're often awkward people in real life.

Everyone says villains are thankless parts, but those are really the best roles.

As an actor you have one great fear: pimples.

You know, be an actor because you love to act. Don't be an actor because you think you're going to get famous, because that's luck.

Being rich and famous has never been my goal at all. I love to act and I want to be able to do really great parts.

I think I think in the moment. So when I'm in character, I'm in character, and I'm obviously thinking about what's going on around me, but it's easier to do stuff when you're in character.

I'm just an ordinary person who has an extraordinary job.

Ask not what the role can do for you; ask what you can do for the role.

I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

Acting has always been a way for me to express myself, and show all my vulnerabilities and flaws through my characters.

Actresses have more fear of being disliked. I, on the other hand, revel in it.

I don't know what else I could do but pretend to be an actor.

On the stage, you have to find truth, even if you have to lose the audience.

In Europe an actor is an artist. In Hollywood, if he isn't working, he's a bum.

One of the weird things about Hollywood is we're all imposters; we're all just glammed up.

Well, you need the villain. If you don't have a villain, the good guy can stay home.

A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world, because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they'd like to be if they dared to and what they really are.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

The loss of my father left a great emptiness in my heart.