Acting Quotes - Page 30

• I've always loved movies but everyone loves movies, so I never conceived of the fact that I could actually be in them. In high school I had some friends in the drama department, but they were just doing plays, and I was like, "Eh, I don't really think that that's me." So I just played sports. Then, a bunch of years later, I'm acting.

  Channing Tatum

  Sports, Drama, School

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• I don't think my acting was ever bad; I always knew that I could do it. But when you go to audition for a drama, they're very serious in the room, and I was used to being kind of goofy and having small talk.

  Mary Lynn Rajskub

  Drama, Thinking, Be Kind

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• All three parts of filmmaking [writing, shooting, editing] contribute to rhytm. You want the script to be a tight as possible, you want the acting to be as efficient as possible on the set, and you have enough coverage to manipulate the rhythm in the editing room, and then in the editing room you want to find the quickest possible version, even if it's a leisurely paced film. I definitely in filmmaking more and more find writing and directing a means to harvest material for editing. It's all about editing.

  Alexander Payne

  Mean, Writing, Editing

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• Acting, it's not my life, my children and my family, that's life. I'll get up every morning, God willing, for that.

  Denzel Washington

  Morning, Children, My Family

  Source: movieweb.com

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• I never really took any acting classes. I'm just a natural ham, I guess.

  Queen Latifah

  Class, Ham, Natural

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. October 30, 2002.

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• Harold Ramis really got my career going and was a friend for a long time. I was doing a play in L.A., and he came to see it a few times and recommended me to Ivan Reitman for Ghostbusters 2. Six months later, I quit real estate and was acting for good, and it was really because Harold took an interest in me and made a phone call and did stuff that people don't usually do, even if they like somebody.

  Kurt Fuller

  Real, Phones, Play

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• You're not going to be able to look like anyone else, no matter how hard you try, unless you're a mimic, then you're not acting, you're just mimicking. You can't go on being John Wayne, that's John Wayne. So you're not going to steal from John Wayne. I'm not going to steal from John Wayne and you're not going to come back and say 'Didn't you get that from the circus?' You know. But he is one of those people who instructs me, whom I look up to - whom I think is one of the masters of his craft that I am so enamoured of.

  Morgan Freeman

  Thinking, People, Trying

  "Morgan Freeman - part two". Guardian interview, www.theguardian.com. July 14, 2000.

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• No one is really a method actor, everyone has their way of going about it, preparing for it, but method is preparation, it's what you do to prepare. So my method is to read the script. Some actors' method is to read the script a hundred times and in the doing of it, to immerse themselves in as much of the reality as possible. Me, I believe strictly in acting. If I am out of breath, I'm out of breath. I ain't running nowhere.

  Morgan Freeman

  Running, Believe, Reality

  "Morgan Freeman - part two". The Gardian Interview at the BFI, www.theguardian.com. July 14, 2000.

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• I am sure that there is a lot more going on in the objective real world than we can monitor with our five senses. I think dreams allow us to engage with the real world and monitor the way it is acting on us.

  Amy Hardie

  Dream, Real, Thinking

  "The Edge of Dreaming". Live Chat with Filmmaker and Dream Experts, www.pbs.org. August 24, 2010.

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• Acting is a specific discipline. Just because you can sing doesn't mean you have the sensitivities of being an actor.

  Neil Diamond

  Mean, Discipline, Actors

  "Neil Diamond Cuts Up". Interview with Richard Natale, articles.latimes.com. February 10, 2001.

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• I'm trying to find the truth in myself. To play somebody else doesn't interest me. It's not the focus of my life. I can get through most scenes and do the acting part of it, and at best, I'm going to be mediocre.

  Neil Diamond

  Play, Focus, Trying

  "Neil Diamond Cuts Up". Interview with Richard Natale, articles.latimes.com. February 10, 2001.

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• Movie acting, I later realized, reminds me of contract bridge. Each requires the same concentration, intense short-term memory, and obliviousness to everything else until the last trump is called - or whatever it is they do.

  Gore Vidal

  Memories, Bridges, Lasts

  Source: articles.latimes.com

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• I would just say that I could share what served me, which was trying to find the best material that I could possibly find and make it better. When other celebrities and sports stars, or people that are successful in another area, cross over into movies, they're always encouraged to bring that same tenacity and that same relentless drive that you had to make it. You have to apply that to acting.

  Dwayne Johnson

  Sports, Stars, Successful

  "Dwayne Johnson Talks Race to Witch Mountain". Interview with Brian Gallaher, movieweb.com. August 04, 2009.

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• Writing is something I took up rather than anything I had an inclination toward. I like acting -delivering someone else's message - but writing is more of an accomplishment.

  Steve Martin

  Writing, Accomplishment, Messages

  "COVER STORY : A Side Order of Steve Martin : He's had his ups and downs with L.A., but they're back together in his new movie". Interview with Elaine Dutka, articles.latimes.com. February 3, 1991.

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• My goal is to tell good stories. And to try as best I can to do something new with acting. To learn from the past and to be a relevant artist. To make stories that are interesting and contemporary and to tell some kind of emotional truth.

  Ethan Hawke

  Emotional, Artist, Past

  "Ethan Hawke on Stage Fright, Denzel Washington: "Don't F - With Him, Man" (Q&A)". Interview with Stephen Galloway, www.hollywoodreporter.com. February 8, 2015.

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• Sometimes in the life of an actor you're not getting offered any jobs that speak to you. The trouble with acting is that you're only as good as your opportunities.

  Ethan Hawke

  Jobs, Opportunity, Actors

  "Ethan Hawke on Stage Fright, Denzel Washington: "Don't F - With Him, Man" (Q&A)". "The Hollywood Masters" with Stephen Galloway, www.hollywoodreporter.com. February 8, 2015.

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• I usually cast myself in things because acting is how I best relate to artistic impulses. It's what I've wanted to do since I was a child, so a scene usually plays itself out in my head with me performing it. And if I cast myself that's one less person I have to pay, one less person I have to explain my vision to, one less person I have to worry about.

  Amber Sealey

  Children, Play, Worry

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• Everything that you do is a challenge. And acting is just building up your concentration and being able to listen and to do the ridiculous.

  Clint Eastwood

  Building Up, Challenges, Able

  "Clint Eastwood Describes His Near-Death Experience, Says 'American Sniper' Is Anti-War (Exclusive)". Interview with Stephen Galloway, www.hollywoodreporter.com. March 16, 2015.

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• Writing is a creative art form and the acting and directing is more of an interpretive art form.

  Clint Eastwood

  Art, Writing, Creative

  "Clint Eastwood Describes His Near-Death Experience, Says 'American Sniper' Is Anti-War". Interview with Stephen Galloway, www.hollywoodreporter.com. March 16, 2015.

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• Acting is like music and you improvise. It's like jazz, there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's not a plan. You practice to music and you just play it.

  Denzel Washington

  Practice, Play, Jazz

  Source: www.npr.org

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• With music, you could stick someone with a musical instrument or even not a musical instrument, get them to showcase their talent, and within 30 seconds you could tell whether they were good or not, but with acting you have to give them the right part.

  Ed Sheeran

  Giving, Musical, Sticks

  Source: www.buzzfeed.com

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• We'll all retire from life at some point. The great thing about acting is you don't necessarily have to retire.

  Denzel Washington

  Retiring, Great Things

  Source: www.theaquarian.com

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• In stand up, you get an awareness of how you come across, but in acting there is almost a hyper-awareness on how you might be physically perceived.

  Jim Gaffigan

  Might, Awareness, Hyper

  "Interview: Comedian Jim Gaffigan in Chicago for 'Dad is Fat'". Interview with Patrick McDonald, www.hollywoodchicago.com. May 8, 2013.

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• My problem with the traditional acting method was that I never understood what you were supposed to be thinking about when you're onstage.

  Tina Fey

  Thinking, Problem, Method

  The BELIEVER Magazine Interview, www.believermag.com. November, 2003.

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• We cannot create blueprint for future society, but it is good to think about that. It is good to have in mind a goal. It is constructive, it is helpful, it is healthy, to think about what future society might be like, because then it guides you somewhat what you are doing today, but only so long as this discussions about future society don't become obstacles to working towards this future society. Otherwise you can spend discussing this utopian possibility versus that utopian possibility, and in the mean time you are not acting in a way that would bring you closer to that.

  Howard Zinn

  Mean, Thinking, Long

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