Best acting & stage Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“It's a career that's enticing because you go on stage, for example, and people clap. You get that affirmation, but you can't go into acting for that because it's really your own self-belief that's going to get you through.”

People Self Belief Acting Careers Stage Example Goes On Affirmation Belief In Self Enticing

Author:Miranda Otto

“If I do a film and have to get naked, that tends to dictate how often I go to the gym. Acting in 'Richard II' on stage was a huge physical workout, so I ended up more toned than I normally am.”

Ifs Film Acting Stage Huge Naked Gym Workout Richard Ii

Author:Eddie Redmayne

“Acting is something that I always wanted, but I never paid attention to the notion that it might actually work out. You have all sorts of ideas about what you want to do - at one stage, I wanted to be a jockey - but this is the one that's a big deal.”

Want Ideas Bigs Might Wanted Deals Acting Attention Stage Paid Notion Work Out What You Want Big Deal Jockeys

Author:Olivia Thirlby

“You can be in an acting class all you want, but you don't fully learn until you get off that stage and in front of a camera.”

Want Acting Class Stage Fronts Cameras Acting Classes

Author:Nicholas Lea

“I've found acting on stage much more challenging than on screen.”

Found Challenges Acting Stage Screens

Author:Elizabeth McGovern

“I grew up in Glen Ellyn, which is about 20 miles west of Chicago. I attended Glenbard South High School and University of Illinois. I didn't study acting until I moved to Los Angeles after college, but the fact that I was raised in the Chicago area set the stage for all of my comedic and acting sensibilities.”

Facts School Acting Study Stage College Grew Grew Up High School Areas Moved West South Raised University Miles Los Angeles Chicago Sensibility Comedic Illinois

Author:Ryan McPartlin

“I love theater work because of the immediate effect your performance has on the audience. And I love the repetition, I love getting on the same stage for more than a month and reciting the same lines, trying to make a small or large step towards an improvement in my acting.”

Trying Lines Acting Steps Audience Effects Stage Months Performances Theater Improvement Repetition Reciting

Author:Alfred Molina

“I'm one of relatively few stage-trained actors who doesn't much like acting on stage. It feels kind of like riding the Cyclone at Coney Island, which I did when I was eight. When it was all over, I was glad I had done it, but most of the time when it was actually happening, I was just kind of hanging on for dear life.”

Feels Kind Done Actors Acting Stage Happenings Dear Eight Glad Islands Riding Hanging On Cyclones Dear Life Coney Island

Author:Fred Melamed

“Though I acted in hundreds of productions, appeared at the Guthrie Theatre and on Broadway in Amadeus, I discovered in my thirties that I didn't really like stage acting. The presence of the audience, the eight shows a week and the possibility of a long run were all unnatural to me.”

Long Shows Running Acting Audience Week Stage Possibility Productions Eight Theatre Long Runs Broadway Unnatural Stage Acting Amadeus Stage Presence

Author:Fred Melamed

“There's no doubt that I owe a lot to my training of stage acting.”

Acting Doubt Stage Training No Doubt Stage Acting

Author:Denis Lavant

“Yeah, I think that a play is a huge commitment, and I think that what it requires of you is a lot, so it really makes you dig in and find things, and it just makes you sharp, 'cause it's live. Really, to me, it separates the men from the boys. I always say it's like the frontlines of acting, when you're on stage.”

Thinking Men Play Causes Acting Boys Stage He Man Huge Commitment Yeah Frontline

Author:Yul Vazquez

“I'm too impatient to wait for things to happen to me. If I should be out of work for two months I would go crazy. So as soon as I'm free, I start writing. While it is necessary for me to write, I know that if I go too long without acting on the stage I don't feel well.”

Ifs Knows Feels Should Writing Wells Long Two Happens Waiting Acting Crazy Stage Months Impatient Two Months

Author:Erland Josephson

“Stage acting is for me the basic form of acting. If you make films all the time, you have so few possibilities to rehearse. And it's important to rehearse, because it gives you the possibility to try things which are not good!”

Ifs Giving Trying Important Film Form Acting Stage Possibility Stage Acting

Author:Erland Josephson

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women mearly players.”

“Once you do a piece on the stage, you become that poem or you become that piece. That's really who you are. I think that's why some artists have stage names, you know? I don't have a stage name, it's pretty much just me.”

Thinking Knows Artist Actors Names Acting Pieces Stage Who You Are Theatre

Author:Clinton D. Powell

“In life, as on the stage, it's not who I am but what I do that's the measure of my worth and the secret of my success. All the rest is showiness, arrogance and conceit.”

Acting Secret Stage Who I Am Arrogance Conceit Secret Of My Success Stage Acting

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

“All I ever wanted to do was be on stage, if possible acting in Shakespeare. And to be as good as I could be.”

Ifs World Wanted Film Found Interest Acting Fantasy Stage Tvs Training Convinced Backgrounds Sci Fi Larger Than Life

Author:Patrick Stewart

“I studied movies for many years, but I am professionally an actor because I, my background is actually a stage actor and acting.”

Years Actors Acting Stage Backgrounds Stage Actors Actors And Acting Stage Acting

Author:Tommy Wiseau

“Acting time is like flight time: You can work on a simulator, you can rehearse, but unless you're really in front of the camera or on a stage - that's when you really learn how to work it.”

Acting Stage Fronts Cameras Flight Working It

Author:John Kapelos

“Acting gets into your blood, after so many years, and I just always like revisiting it. It's fun to meet new people and watch them coming along, at different stages of their careers.”

People Years Different Fun Acting Careers Watches Blood Stage Meeting New People

Author:Clint Eastwood

“I am learning to be more vulnerable and open on stage. This comes with the development of my acting abilities.”

Ability Acting Stage Development Vulnerable Vulnerability

Author:Ben Heppner

“In a close-up, the audience is only inches away, and your face becomes the stage.”

Faces Acting Audience Stage Your Face Inches

Author:Marlon Brando

“I stopped acting when I was about nineteen, twenty, when I got thrown out of college. I did act for about ten years. I don't know. I suspect I'm still a reasonably good actor, but I don't really know that I want to get on the stage again ... and having to say all those boring words by me over and over again ... I don't know if I want to do that. Also, I like a certain amount of freedom of movement, and if you're acting, you're stuck in one place for a long time. Having said that, I will probably be onstage next fall.”

Source: Stretching My Mind: The Collected Essays of Edward Albee

“My metaphor for acting in movies - not on stage because it's completely different on stage - is to put colors on an easel for the director to paint his own painting with in the editing room, long after I've left. You buy me for red and black, so I better give you really great red and black, but if I can give you purple, pink, green and brown too, I will.”

Ifs Giving Long I Can Different Left Black Rooms Acting Stage Color Painting Directors Red Green Paint Metaphor Brown Editing Really Great Purple Acting In Movies Red And Black

Author:Scott Glenn

“I've had a chance to really stretch and do a lot of different genres. When I started acting, my whole focus and intention was to work as a stage actor in a company where you're asked to different roles - do a comedy, do a tragedy, etc. I haven't had any reservations about jumping from one type of genre to another.”

Different Whole Actors Chance Acting Company Roles Comedy Focus Stage Havens Type Tragedy Intention Genre Etc Jumping Reservations Different Genres Stage Actors

Author:Kyle MacLachlan

“I love acting. I love stage work, more than anything. It's just live. It's right there in front of you. If you make a mistake, they know it and you know it. I won't do anything where I feel like I'm just making a fool out of myself. By doing that, I'm able to rise to my highest potential.”

Ifs Knows Feels Able Acting Mistake Stage Fronts Fool Highest Just Live

Author:Mike Tyson

“Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less. Unfortunately, there's a style of acting going round, especially with the younger actors, where they talk without even moving their lip. Maybe it's because my hearing probably isn't what it was 40 years ago but I'm sitting there going "What did they say"?”

Thinking Years Littles Film Moving Actors Acting Stage Style Conscious Sitting Years Ago Rounds Lips Hearing Theatre Speaking Up Film Actors Stage Actors

Author:Clint Eastwood

“On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only when he was off, he was acting.”

Natural Simple Acting Stage

Author:Oliver Goldsmith

“One of the things I do tell young women, if they want to pursue a career in acting, is to get good stage training. It is essential to have a good basis in stage technique. You can move into film easily, and acquire more skill and more understanding, but you can't necessarily go the other way around. For women, longevity of career will very much be on stage.”

Ifs Way Want Film Moving Young Understanding Acting Careers Stage Skills Essentials Training Bases Technique Pursue Acquire Longevity Young Women

Author:Kathleen Turner

“The stage is a supplement to the pulpit, where virtue, according to Plato's sublime idea, moves our love and affection when made visible to the eye.”

Made Ideas Eye Moving Acting Virtue Stage Affection Visible Sublime Plato Our Love Supplements Pulpit Love And Affection Plato S

Author:Benjamin Disraeli

“Few rash of any modern nation have a proper sense of an aesthetical whole; they praise and blame by parts; they are charmed by passages. And who has greater reason to rejoice in this than actors, since the stage is ever but a patched and piecemeal matter?”

Matter Reason Whole Actors Nations Acting Greater Modern Stage Praise Blame Passages Rejoice Charmed

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“I reenact everything. I love to paint a picture for my audience. I'm a lot like Richard Pryor in that aspect. I do a lot of acting on stage, acting out and visualizing stuff. I love to do that. I'm into it so much, it just comes out of me.”

Stuff Acting Audience Stage Aspect Paint Visualizing Acting Out Stage Acting

Author:Chris Tucker

“You can be a little bit darker and rougher on the stage, partly because when you're in the theater, people have come to see you, and so they kind of know what they're in for. In television, you are sort of sneaking into people's homes. So, I think you can be a little bit darker on stage.”

People Thinking Knows Kind Littles Home Bits Acting Stage Television Little Bit Theater

Author:Tina Fey

“The stage is actor's country. You have to get your passport stamped every so often or they take away your citizenship.”

Country Actors Acting Stage Theater Citizenship Passports

Author:Vanessa Redgrave

“Acting has been my passion from the minute I started. I was pretty young when I wanted to be a doctor, but when I started doing theater work as a freshman in high school, the first time I hit the stage I was like, If I can do this every day, life won't get any better!”

Ifs Firsts Has Beens I Can Wanted School Young Passion Can Do Acting Minutes Stage High School First Time Doctors Theater My Passion Freshman Day Life I Can Do This

Author:Sophia Bush

“I lose myself in my performances so I wouldn't say that I ever act on stage. I don't find it to be an acting drill for me. I just find it to be something very real that comes from a very gut-driven, honest place.”

Real Loses Acting Stage Honest Performances Driven Guts Drills

Author:Christina Aguilera

“Regarding green screen, green screen is really like doing some stage work. You have to make believe that there is a window, make believe that something is there that is really not there and convince the audience. It's part of acting.”

Believe Acting Audience Stage Window Green Screens Convince Make Believe

Author:Benicio Del Toro

“It was in India that I started my acting career, courtesy of my parents, long before I set foot on stage in England. They headed a company of travelling players performing Shakespeare up and down the land.”

Long Parent Acting Company Careers Player Feet Land Stage India England Performing Courtesy Up And Down

Author:Felicity Kendal

“A lot of the time, you're supposed to play to the top of your intelligence, as truthful as possible. But when you're on stage making people laugh, you're still acting. I think it helped me a bunch to go on stage two or three times a week.”

People Thinking Stills Two Play Three Acting Laughing Week Stage Goes On Bunch Truthful Three Times Making People Laugh

Author:Ben Schwartz

“At the moment, my trajectory isn't to think about acting. I'm absolutely devoted to The Imaginarium, our projects and directing. And watching and enabling other actors do their thing in our studio is hugely rewarding. I expect at some point I'll probably want to go back on stage and do some theater, because I've not done theater in 10 years.”

Thinking Want Years Done Moments Actors Acting Stage Projects Theater Studios Devoted Enabling Trajectory

Author:Andy Serkis

“There is probably some great acting that goes on in movies from people who have never been on a stage, but if you are in for the long haul, you'd be missing an enormous part of what being an actor is if you're not part of theater.”

People Ifs Long Actors Acting Stage Missing Goes On Theater Enormous Haul Long Haul

Author:Justin Kirk

“No acting, no production, could take the place of that moment when you come out in the dark on to the stage and the drummer plays four beats on the hi-hat and then lights and music. It just takes your breath away. No words can do what music can.”

Play Moments Light Can Do Dark Acting Four Stage Beats Breaths Productions Hats That Moment Drummer

Author:Ken Stott

“On some level acting is the art of pretend and you have to have a highly cultivated sense of imagination. You have to be able to see things that aren't there no matter what aspect of acting, whether it's green screen, whether it's on stage, whether it's anything else, whether you're working on the radio.”

Art Matter Able Imagination Levels Acting Stage Aspect No Matter What Green Radio Screens

Author:Stephen Lang

“My first acting experience was a non-speaking role as a robot. My costume was a cardboard box covered in tinfoil, but I was so shy I refused to go on stage.”

Firsts Acting Roles Stage Goes On Boxes Shy Covered Costumes Robots Cardboard Boxes

Author:Jessica Raine

“Coming from sitcom television and coming from music you burn up every single second. You don't leave anything there. You burn it up and you pass out when you walk off stage, so I took that concept into acting.”

Walks Acting Stage Television Concepts Sitcom

Author:Will Smith

“TV acting is so extremely intimate, because of the peculiar involvement of the viewer with the completion or "closing" of the TV image, that the actor must achieve a great degree of spontaneous casualness that would be irrelevant in movie and lost on the stage. For the audience participates in the inner life of the TV actor as fully as in the outer life of the movie star. Technically, TV tends to be a close-up medium. The close-up that in the movie is used for shock is, on TV, a quite casual thing.”

Source: Understanding media: the extensions of man

“Each religion is a brave guess at the authorship of Hamlet. Yet, as far as the play goes, does it make any difference whether Shakespeare or Bacon wrote it? Would it make any difference to the actors if their parts happened out of nothingness, if they found themselves acting on the stage because of some gross and unpardonable accident? Would it make any difference if the playwright gave them the lines or whether they composed them themselves, so long as the lines were properly spoken? Would it make any difference to the characters if 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was really a dream?”

Ifs Long Doe Play Character God Dream Night Actors Found Differences Lines Acting Happened Stage Brave Accidents Nothingness Gross Playwright Authorship Midsummer Midsummer Night's Dream

Author:Lewis Mumford

“On the stage one must not confuse the nature of a personality with the naturalness of a person.”

Persons Actors Acting Stage Personality

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“The art of an actress is sublimated sexuality. But off the stage the fire must be able to reconvert the steam into body.”

Art Body Able Actors Acting Fire Stage Sexuality Actresses Steam

Book:Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

Source: Half-truths & One-and-a-half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

“I could wish there were a treaty made between the French and the English theatres, in which both parties should make considerableconcessions. The English ought to give up their notorious violations of the unities, and all their massacres, racks, dead bodies, and mangled carcasses, which they so frequently exhibit upon their stage. The French should engage to have more action, and less declamation, and not to cram and to crowd things together to almost a degree of impossibility from a too scrupulous adherence to the unities.”

Source: Lord Chesterfield's Letters

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Acting Quotes