“I'm just as intrigued by acting as ever. It's an ongoing process. There's no arrival. There's no point at which you say "Oh, OK, done it, got it." It just doesn't happen. And that's true of any creative endeavor. For me, it's just a lifelong interest. I'm very much interested in the craft. I started by doing plays and it took me a long time to feel comfortable doing movies, working with cameras. I felt like I was a theater actress pretending that I was a movie actress for quite a while. Now, I just love the process of working with cameras and being on a set and trying to put a film together.” TryingLongDoneTogetherFilmInterestActingCreativePretendingLifelongIntrigued Author:Annette Bening
“There's a lot of different ways of going about teaching acting and ultimately you have to just kind of create your own. You have to be the author of your own acting school in a way. I mean you can take from this and this and you can watch people and you can watch performances on the stage. You can watch movies. But ultimately you have to figure it out for yourself.” PeopleKindMeanDifferentSchoolActingTeaching Author:Annette Bening
“All of modern acting comes from Stanislavski, who was the Russian partner to Chekhov. When Chekhov was writing his plays, Stanislavski was running his theater. And Stanislavski really was the first inventor of modern acting and then everything that came out of the method and Stella Adler and the great teachers really came out of him.” WritingRunningActingTeacherModernInventorGreat Teacher Author:Annette Bening
“Modern acting is method acting, most of it. And there are sort of different schools, so I guess I'm not really from one school or another. I had a number of different teachers but they were all kind of drawing from the same pool, which is - What do you want? What are you doing to get what you want? And, what is in the way? These are basic acting questions. Knowing the answers to those questions. So you're talking about objectives and actions and obstacles. That's a sort of shorthand that gives you a language.” GivingKindDifferentActionSchoolLanguageActingTeacherModernObstaclesAll KindsPool Author:Annette Bening
“That's one of the most important things about acting is not just when you're speaking but when you're taking in from someone else. So I often go to the theater and I'm watching the person who's not talking. I love that.” ImportantActing Author:Annette Bening
“A lot of acting is working with your own psyche in order to allow yourself to be open and reveal yourself. But then of course there's a healthy part of you that says, "Well, don't do that." You know, you're going to be in front of people. You could look foolish. You could get it wrong. You could be too big or too small or not realistic or whatever those things are. People might criticize you. There's all kinds of reasons not to be open. But you do want to be open.” PeopleKindReasonActingHealthyFoolishAll KindsCriticizeRealistic Author:Annette Bening
“As an actor, you want to be open to the unexpected. So in order to be open to that, you do have to get out of your discursive mind just like in any creative process, this isn't just about acting. So you have to learn a little bit how to work with your own mind.” MindActingCreativeUnexpectedCreative Process Author:Annette Bening
“Of course, you can never watch something like somebody else watches something like you, but nonetheless, you have to try. So I think on camera you learn a lot about how much the camera does for you, which is what is the great luxury of movie acting. Or acting whether it's TV or movies or whatever it is, that the camera's really such a gift because there's so much that it sees and does if you're willing to just be open and expose yourself and all of that. So you also learn what doesn't matter. And sometimes when you think about things, you think things matter that don't matter.” ThinkingTryingSometimesActingLike You Author:Annette Bening
“Why I love acting is that it's totally subjective and I like that. I like that.” Acting Author:Annette Bening
“Acting is not about being famous, it's about exploring the human soul.” HumansSoulActingFameExploringHuman SoulBeing FamousGood Acting Author:Annette Bening
“I knew I wanted children in my life. The acting was always in relation to it. Life at home is chaos. They're wonderful. They're such interesting human beings. I just love it. I'm lucky.” HumansChildrenHomeWantedHuman BeingsInterestingActingWonderfulLuckyRelationChaos Author:Annette Bening
“I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.” WaySoulAbleRememberActingCamerasHearingHopefullyYour SoulMaskAnother WayLiberatingGood Acting Author:Annette Bening
