Best Acting Teachers Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I had an acting teacher tell me once that if you're playing a car salesman, you don't want to be an OK car salesman, you want to play the best car salesman.”

Ifs Want Play Acting Teacher Car Salesman Acting Teachers Car Salesman

Author:Aaron Tveit

“Yes, I was actually an acting teacher for a while.”

Acting Teacher Acting Teachers

Author:Alanna Ubach

“When an acting teacher tells a student 'that wasn't honest work' or 'that didn't seem real,' what does this mean? In life, we are rarely 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. And characters in plays are almost never 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. What exactly do teachers even mean by these words? A more useful question is: What is the story the actor was telling in their work? An actor is always telling a story. We all are telling stories, all the time. Story: that is what it is all about.”

Mean Doe Real Play Character Stories Seems Actors Acting Teacher Honest Students Truthful Telling Stories Acting Teachers Honest Work

Author:Stella Adler

“I'll never forget my high school acting teacher, Anthony Abeson, who said, "It starts with the shoes." When I think about a character, it does start with the shoes: What kind would she wear? How would she walk in them? If I'm going to put on a dress for a role - I don't care if it's the hardest dress to put on - I have to put the shoes on first. The physicality leads me to the character.”

“You reminded me of a quote that my acting teacher Stella Adler wrote in her book ['The Art of Acting'], which I asked her to sign: "The young actor feels some greatness inside themselves that they want to give back to the world." That resonated with me, but I didn't really understand what she was talking about until much later, in the way you surmised that my struggle to become an actor was from being this kind of introverted young boy.”

World Way Want Giving Feels Kind Art Book Young Actors Acting Talking Boys Struggle Teacher Greatness Giving Back Introverted Young Actors My Struggle Stella Acting Teachers Adler

Author:Mark Ruffalo

“My acting teacher in high school was really influential, and we still keep in touch.”

Stills School Acting Teacher High School Influential Acting Teachers

Author:Brandon Jay McLaren

“I had a great acting teacher in high school. But I didnt like acting because it took too many people to get the job done. You have to talk to too many people and listen to others opinions. With music, you get a few friends together and just make it.”

People Done School Together Jobs Acting Opinion Teacher High School Get The Job Done Few Friends Others Opinions Acting Teachers

Author:Hugh Dillon

“Oh, it's the first big thing I've really done. My first job out of college was working with Steven Soderbergh. I was telling my acting teachers, "I did it, you guys!"”

Firsts Done Bigs Jobs Guy Acting Teacher College Big Things Acting Teachers

Author:Eve Hewson

“The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place.”

Mean Acting Seeing Theater Theatre Greek Best Acting Theatre Acting Method Acting Acting Teachers

Book:Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled & edited by Howard Kissel

Source: Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled & edited by Howard Kissel

“The greatest inspiration I draw upon is, is this city (New York) and riding the subway and watching people and I find that's kind of like the best, the best acting teacher. You know, I wonder, like people who have huge celebrity, sometimes I feel bad, should this be one of their methods 'cause I don't know how they can observe life anymore, because they become the observed. So, I, I appreciate that New York can still do that.”

People Knows Feels Should Kind Stills Sometimes Inspiration Causes Acting Cities Wonder Know How Teacher New York Huge Draws Appreciate Method Riding Subway Best Acting Acting Teachers

Author:Amy Ryan

“I know what it's like to have a dream. I know what it's like to roll the dice and say, 'I'm going to go after this thing,' and nothing turns my stomach quicker than acting teachers or acting schools that look at a bunch of dreamers and say, 'We can help,' when they know full well that they can't.”

Knows Wells Looks Helping Dream School Turns Acting Teacher Bunch Stomach Dreamer Dice Acting Teachers

Author:Jim Parrack

“Part of an actor's job is to actually adopt the world-view of the character she is playing and to tell the story from that vantage point. If an actor represses large aspects of their personality, they will have a severely limited range and castability. Great actors cultivate effortless access to their subpersonalities. Many acting teachers call this 'freeing your instrument.'”

Ifs World Character Stories Jobs Actors Views Acting Teacher Personality Aspect Instruments Access Range Great Actors Effortless World View Vantage Point Acting Teachers

Author:Jack Lemmon

“I started taking lessons in third grade because I thought it was a fun thing to do. Through my acting teacher, I got my manager. That was about 5th grade. So once that happened it kind of clicked that I probably should pursue acting as a career.”

Should Kind Fun Acting Careers Teacher Happened Lessons Thirds Pursue Managers Things To Do Grades Fun Things Third Grade Acting Teachers

Author:Jared Gilman

“I grew up the son of an acting teacher but I've never been really good at articulating what that process is. It was always a bit more internal.”

Bits Process Acting Teacher Son Grew Grew Up Internals Articulating Acting Teachers

Author:Vin Diesel

“There is a group of us that met through Howard Klein's class in Los Angeles. Howard Klein is a prominent acting teacher. We got together and did this short Night Music that was such an amazing experience, Guy and I were thinking, 'Okay, what do we do next?' So he wrote this next movie of his, Loulou.”

Thinking Together Night Guy Next Acting Class Teacher Groups Mets Okay Los Angeles Prominent Amazing Experiences Acting Teachers

Author:Boti Bliss

“I never studied. I was too afraid. I thought that if an acting teacher had said to me, "You know what, you're not good," I would not have gone any further. It was easier for me to justify going to an audition and getting rejected, maybe because they wanted somebody blonde, maybe because I wasn't experienced enough. I could live with that more easily.”

Ifs Knows Said Enough Wanted Acting Gone Teacher Easier Justify Rejected Auditions Blonde Acting Teachers

Author:Demi Moore

“You have to come in and be that character when you walk into the room. That's what one of my first acting teachers taught me. You know, don't go in there being Jennifer and then expect to flip and change, because they're not going to have that imagination.”

Knows Firsts Character Imagination Walks Rooms Acting Teacher Taught Flip Jennifer Acting Teachers

Author:Jennifer Lopez

“I learned never to listen to acting teachers because they don't know what the hell they're talking about.”

Knows Acting Talking Hell Teacher Listen To Your Heart Acting Teachers

Author:Tim Robbins

“The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.”

People Mean Social Acting Situation Seeing Theater Theatre Greek Best Acting Theatre Acting Method Acting Acting Teachers Truth About Life

Author:Stella Adler

“The theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time.”

Spiritual Social Theatre Rays Theatre Acting Acting Teachers

Book:Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled & edited by Howard Kissel

Source: Stella Adler - The Art of Acting: preface by Marlon Brando compiled & edited by Howard Kissel

“An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.”

Acting Behavior Theatre Pounds Best Acting Acting Teachers

Book:Sanford Meisner on Acting

Source: Sanford Meisner on Acting

“Study, find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting to act, not to be famous or for the money. Do plays. It's not worth it if you are just in it for the money. You have to love it.”

Ifs Play Acting Study Teacher Involved Worth It Get Involved Good Teacher Not Worth It Good Acting Acting Teachers

Author:Philip Seymour Hoffman

“An acting teacher once told me, 'Greet everything with yes... Even if you abandon one idea for another one, saying yes allows you to move forward.'”

Ifs Ideas Moving Motivation Acting Teacher Moving Forward Abandon Saying Yes Acting Teachers

Author:Tina Fey

“I think you're an acting teacher in disguise You're so incredibly intuitive and always passionate and always driven to go further. I never had to worry. All I had to do was look at you, babe.”

Thinking Looks Acting Worry Teacher Passionate Driven Disguise Intuitive Babe Acting Teachers

Author:Chad Coleman

“I was raised in New York City and raised in the New York City theater world. My father was a theater director and an acting teacher, and it was not uncommon for me to have long discussions about the method and what the various different processes were to finding a character and exploring character and realizing that character.”

“I had acting teachers, and one of the things that was encouraged was to keep it fresh, to be spontaneous. That's the magic of film often.”

Film Acting Teacher Magic Spontaneous Be Spontaneous Acting Teachers

Author:Matt Dillon

“At Cornell, my acting teacher said you cannot be religious and be an artist. I sort of got it, because faith is a comfort and art comes from a lot of places, in a lot of people, from the dark chasm.”

People Art Said Artist Religious Dark Acting Teacher Comfort Chasms Acting Teachers

Author:Catherine Hicks

“A lot of moms give their kids line reads. My mom wasn't put in that position because I always had an acting teacher helping with the feelings rather than how to say something.”

Giving Helping Feelings Kids Lines Acting Teacher Position Mom My Mom Acting Teachers

Author:Kirsten Dunst

“I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner, my acting teacher, told us. When you create a character, it's like making a chair, except instead of making someting out of wood, you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.”

Character Actors Acting Teacher Woods Crafts Remembered Chairs Acting Teachers

Author:Robert Duvall

“I do readings at the public library. I just did a benefit scene night for my old acting teacher.”

Night Reading Acting Teacher Scene Benefits Library Public Library Acting Teachers

Author:Mark Ruffalo

“My acting teacher used to say that people reveal themselves in their opposites.”

People Used Acting Teacher Opposites Two Opposites Acting Teachers

Author:Kristin Bauer van Straten

“I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist.”

Knows May Levels Acting Know How Teacher Taught Method Tables Crafts Obliged Ballerina Violinist Method Acting Acting Teachers

Author:Ellen Barkin

“My father was a writer and an acting teacher.”

Father Acting Teacher Acting Teachers

Author:Noah Hathaway