“I'm fairly well off. I can't poor-mouth that away from people's sensibilities about me, which is something I worry about as an actor. But it would be real stupid of me to do something for the money.” PeopleWellsI CanRealWould BeActorsPoorWorryStupidMouthsBeing RealSensibility Author:Jack Nicholson
“You often hear that people go into show business to find the love they never had when they were children. Never believe it! Every comic and most of the actors I know had a childhood full of love. Then they grew up and found out that in the grown-up world, you don't get all that love, you just get your share. So they went into show business to recapture the love they had known as children when they were the center of the universe.” PeopleKnowsWorldBelieveChildrenShowsUniverseActorsFoundKnownShareChildhoodLove YouGrewGrew UpComicShow BusinessCenter Of The Universe Author:Mel Brooks
“The first role I ever played I had the lead and it's pretty much stayed that way, though people take great relish in calling me a character actor, which I am. There are a lot of short parts I could play, but I only do them when they are like this ("A Few Good Men"), central to the idea of the movie.” PeopleWayFirstsIdeasPlayCharacterActorsRolesCallingRelishCharacter Actors Author:Jack Nicholson
“There are ways in which you can make sure that even if people come to the theatre because they know an actor or actress, by the end, theyve forgotten that, and they leave going, Wow - what an amazing play.” PeopleIfsKnowsWayEndsPlayActorsForgottenActressesTheatreWow Author:Kevin Spacey
“As a person who came from a small town and had dreams of becoming an actor, I know what it's like to have no support system for what it is that you want to do. A lot of people think you don't have a chance.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantPersonsDreamActorsChanceSupportBecomingTownsSmall TownSupport Systems Author:Anika
“Even Arnold's adviser says he was shocked by his decision to run. I mean, his people were backstage that night and they had no idea. He totally fooled them. Who knew Arnold was that good of an actor? If he had done that in a movie, he'd have an Academy Award by now.” PeopleIfsMeanIdeasDoneRunningNightActorsDecisionNo IdeaAwardsShockedAcademyFooledAdviserAcademy Awards Author:Jay Leno
“I really want to work in a movie with Quentin Tarantino. I think he makes fantastic movies. I love people that create a different reality for the actors to live in.” PeopleThinkingWantDifferentRealityActorsFantasticQuentinTarantinoDifferent Realities Author:Daniella Alonso
“Not to belittle what we do as actors, but my wife Helen is a teacher, and she makes a real difference to kids. So it's unusual to see people thinking of us as something special.” PeopleThinkingRealKidsActorsDifferencesTeacherWifeSpecialMy WifeUnusualSomething SpecialBelittleHelen Author:Colin O'Donoghue
“Actors are seen as celebrities, but they're just real people with families.” PeopleRealActors Author:Sami Gayle
“I don't consider myself much of an actor. I have a face and a voice that allows me to do certain things, but there are people who are way better at it than I am.” PeopleWayFacesCertainActorsVoice Author:Adrian Pasdar
“For me, the more talented the actor is that I'm working with, the easier my job is because the circumstances of a scene are easier to believe when the people around you are in the moment just as much as you are.” PeopleBelieveMomentsJobsActorsCircumstancesEasierScene Author:Marshall Allman
“I live in Minnesota. Lots of people assume that if you want to be an actor, you have to live in Hollywood, but not me.” PeopleIfsWantActorsHollywoodAssumingMinnesota Author:Chris Massoglia
“For actors, being successful is generally getting a job. If you can work a lot, you're really successful. If you work a lot on projects that are interesting and intelligent and great fun to be part of, then you're hugely successful. And I feel hugely successful. I can't believe that I get to be involved with the projects and the people I work with.” PeopleIfsFeelsBelieveI CanJobsActorsFunInterestingSuccessfulInvolvedProjectsIntelligentBeing Successful Author:Anne-Marie Duff
“The life of an actor is very random. It can be exhilarating but terrifying - you do wonder day to day where the next job will come from. Some of my friends are very talented people, but you see them out of work - which can be tough. If you wanted that kind of security, though, I guess you wouldn't be an actor in the first place.” PeopleIfsFirstsKindWantedJobsNextActorsWonderSecurityMy FriendsToughDay To DayExhilarating Author:Anne-Marie Duff
“You want to have enough of a profile to be able to do all the work you can, but at the same time you want to have your own space. But there are a lot of actors who achieve it, a lot of movie stars even, people like Emily Watson and Cate Blanchett. They seem to be able to carry on with their lives and still produce wonderful, high-profile work.” PeopleWantStillsEnoughSeemsAbleActorsStarsSpaceWonderfulAchieveProduceMovie StarProfileWatsonEmilyHigh Profile Author:Anne-Marie Duff
“There are people out there with three jobs and small children. Being an actor is a walk in the park compared to working as a cleaner overnight. I'm lucky I'm not plucking chickens.” PeopleChildrenJobsThreeActorsWalksLuckyParksChickensCleanersSmall ChildWalks In The Park Author:Anne-Marie Duff
“Its different being a director. I suppose, especially if its a story youve written and you feel compelled to tell, in some ways its a lot easier than acting because youre orchestrating the piece. As an actor, sometimes youre trying to second-guess what people want.” PeopleIfsWayWantFeelsTryingDifferentSometimesStoriesActorsActingPiecesWrittenEasierDirectorsCompelled Author:Paddy Considine
“For so many years, I've been an actor acting in other people's movies, and in 'Unstoppable,' I'm producing it, and I have an opportunity to create some of that excitement with style and form and different color templates and things like that. So, as an artist, it's really exciting.” PeopleYearsDifferentFormArtistActorsOpportunityActingStyleColorExcitingExcitementUnstoppableDifferent Colors Author:Kirk Cameron
“Just as theater has to be where people live, actors have to go out in the marketplace - not be cut off by a lens. Either an artist grows or he stagnates.” PeopleArtistActorsGrowsCuttingTheaterLensesMarketplace Author:Ralph Waite
“People stood on their chairs, cheering and waving. And it was all for me! Waves of love flooded the stage and washed over me. I started to cry. The sweetness of such a moment is impossible to describe. One is both lover and beloved. ... I'd found the one true, enduring romance of my life.” PeopleMomentsRomanceActorsFoundImpossibleStageCryLoversTheaterEndureWaveBelovedChairsCheerSweetnessFound The One Author:Bette Davis
“You're always running into people's unconscious.” PeopleRunningActorsUnconsciousAlways Running Author:Marilyn Monroe
“My mother and my father had very, very strong Scots accents. We were Australian, and in those days when I was young, I spoke with a much more of an Australian accent than I have now. However I knew that if I went to England to become an actor, which I was determined to, I knew that I had to get rid of the Australian accent. We were colonials, we were Down Under somewhere, we were those little people Over There. But I was determined to become an Englishman. So I did.” PeopleIfsLittlesYoungMotherActorsFatherStrongEnglandDeterminedSpokesVery StrongAccentsAustralianEnglishmenScots Author:George Ogilvie
“Working with great actors - being part of something of that magnitude and not knowing the business and what the business entailed or any of that. I was so wet behind the ears, I didn't know anything. It's, like, you're watching movies, and then here you are in front of those people and working with them. It was pretty interesting.” PeopleKnowsActorsInterestingBehindsKnowingFrontsLike YouEarsWetNot KnowingMagnitudeGreat Actors Author:Mekhi Phifer
“Why do all these people want [comedians] to be serious? The reason they want that is these are people who aren't funny. Anybody funny can be serious, but people who have no sense of humor, they can never be funny - and frankly, they're jealous. There's very few comic actors. Think about it. There aren't that many. It's hard because you have to be able to do both.” PeopleThinkingWantHardReasonAbleActorsSeriousComicComedianSense Of HumorJealous Author:Jon Lovitz
“We all, in fact, carry so many people inside us; the only difference is that actors get paid for it, and we sort of spruce it up a bit.” PeopleFactsActorsBitsDifferencesPaid Author:Jane Fonda
“When people feel safe, they can come up with ideas. It's important to listen to the actor who is there on the stage and living it.” PeopleFeelsImportantIdeasActorsStageSafeCome Up Author:Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Directing is kind of like acting through other people. You see moments and you see things and if you don't see the actors hit it, you paint in those little spaces and tell them what direction to go in.” PeopleIfsKindLittlesMomentsActorsSpaceActingPaint Author:Malik Yoba
“I always get a little bit pissed off when stand-up comedy is not recognised as being as good a craft as being an actor. We give Oscars to people and it's like, 'Aw, this person is the greatest person on earth', but being an actor is pretty easy in comparison to stand-up comedy. It's no surprise that several stand-up comics have gone on to become great actors. I don't know any great actors that have gone on to become great stand-up comics.” PeopleKnowsGivingLittlesPersonsEarthActorsEasyBitsGoneComedyLittle BitSurpriseCraftsComparisonOscarsGreat ActorsPissed OffStand Up Comedy Author:Jim Jefferies
“My father came from nothing, so he believed that people could do anything if they worked hard enough. I think he liked that I chose to be an actor.” PeopleIfsThinkingHardEnoughActorsFather Author:Vince Vaughn
“People often say that you should never work with child actors. I think that's all wrong. Children have not had the imagination kicked out of them by life experience and adulthood. So, they still are very much alive with that kind of magical thinking which enables an actor to believe they're in these circumstances and make them real to you.” PeopleThinkingShouldBelieveKindChildrenStillsRealActorsImaginationAliveCircumstancesLife ExperienceAdulthoodChild ActorsMagical Thinking Author:Nicolas Cage
“What I try to do is make sure that the directors I'm working with are on the same page and want to do the same kind of films. You can really protect yourself as an actor if you work with really good people. It can hide a lot of flaws along the way.” PeopleIfsWayWantTryingKindFilmActorsDirectorsProtectPagesFlawsGood PeopleProtect Yourself Author:George Clooney
“There are some scenes that you have to lose in order to win something at the end. A good director will keep pointing you that way, but it is also your job as an actor to understand that there are scenes that you do, particularly when you are the lead, where other people get to come in and steal and you have to let them. I understand that but a good director always reminds you where those moments are.” PeopleWayEndsMomentsJobsOrderActorsWinningLosesSceneDirectorsStealingPointingGood Directors Author:George Clooney
“I use people's real voices because I want realism. So often I mention the actors' physicality because I want it to be like a real documentary.” PeopleWantRealUseActorsVoiceRealismDocumentariesPhysicality Author:Ricky Gervais
“As an actor you want people to know you and there are times you want your pictures taken, but it's unnerving to walk out of a venue with friends and there are 20 people flashing lights in your face. Do you know how bright those lights are?” PeopleKnowsWantLightFacesActorsWalksKnow HowTakenDo You KnowYour FaceVenuesPicture TakenFlashing Lights Author:Ashley Greene
“If, as an actor, you allow yourself to be cocooned from the boring pin-pricks of day-to-day existence - like standing in a queue at the butcher's or any of the other dreary little events that we all have in our daily lives - you begin to lose your lifeline to what people are. And if you lose that, you eventually lose the ability to act.” PeopleIfsLittlesActorsLosesAbilityExistenceEventsStandingBoringDaily LifeDay To DayPinsDrearyButchersQueuesLifelines Author:Glenda Jackson
“comedy ... is much harder to do than drama. It's not true that laugh and the world laughs with you. It's very hard to make a group of people laugh at the same thing; much easier to make them cry at the same thing. ... That's why great comic acting is probably the greatest acting there is.” PeopleWorldHardActorsActingLaughingComedyGroupsCryEasierDramaHarderComic Author:Glenda Jackson
“Men still assume I must be like the girl I played in 'Emmanuelle.' John Wayne was never accused of killing people during his free time, but I'm forever stuck with the image of 'Emmanuelle.' The truth is, I should have got an Oscar for that role because I'm nothing like that woman.” PeopleMenShouldStillsGirlActorsRolesForeverTruth IsShould HaveAssumingKillingStuckOscarsAccusedWayneFree Time Author:Sylvia Kristel
“Actors tend to be quite good at getting on with people. If you’re an arsehole, people don’t want to work with you. You won’t get hired Well, there are a few arseholes.” PeopleIfsWantWellsActorsArseholes Author:Bertie Carvel
“I thought being in the wheelchair might be kind of limiting for me as an actor. It turned out cool in a lot of ways. Of course, at the end of the day, I can get up out of the chair and go home, but I'm very acutely aware that most people can't, so I try to give the situation that depth.” PeopleWayGivingTryingKindI CanEndsHomeMightCoursesActorsSituationDepthGet UpThe End Of The DayChairsBe KindWheelchairs Author:Jim Beaver
“I like to see people put themselves into films, which is part of the reason why I love Woody Allen films so much - I believe his actors' work. I have a feeling that many actors in his films are similar to their characters, and I like that.” PeopleBelieveReasonCharacterFeelingsFilmActorsI BelieveReason WhyWoodyWoody Allen Film Author:Dito Montiel
“I know that some great actors can transform, and that's fine. But I come from the school of thought that people put a version of themselves in their films.” PeopleKnowsSchoolFilmActorsFineVersionsGreat Actors Author:Dito Montiel
“I immensely enjoy any experience directing. I've never hated it, and I've had bad experiences. At the end of the day, I just feel like I'm supposed to be on a set. I'm supposed to be working with creative people. I'm supposed to be working with actors and I'm supposed to be manning a project in this capacity. It's interesting.” PeopleFeelsEndsActorsEnjoyInterestingCreativeProjectsCapacitySupposed To BeHatedThe End Of The DayCreative PeopleBad Experiences Author:Christine Swanson
“I think that when you put yourself, as actors have to do, in other people's shoes, when you have to put on the costume that someone else has worn in their life, it gets much, much harder to be prejudiced against them and even to be - to not try to look at the world in a sense of "I'm not going to judge somebody. I'm going to try to understand who they are and what they're about."” PeopleThinkingWorldTryingLooksActorsJudgingHarderShoesWornCostumes Author:Kevin Spacey
“To really get to know people and discover humanity, which is what I truly think writers and actors do, you've got to be interested in other human beings, you have to be interested in humanity in general, and you have to do some discovering of humanity and different people.” PeopleThinkingKnowsHumansDifferentHumanityActorsHuman BeingsDiscoveringDifferent Peoples Author:Quentin Tarantino
“He [Alan Lomax] started right off trying to find people who could introduce folk songs to city people. He found a young actor named Burl Ives and said, "Burl, you know a lot of great country songs learned from your grandmother, don't you know people would love to hear them?" He put on radio programs. He persuaded CBS to dedicate "The School of the Air" for one year to American folk music. He'd get some old sailor to sing an old sea shanty with a cracked voice. Then he'd get me to sing it with my banjo.” PeopleKnowsTryingYearsSaidCountrySchoolYoungSongActorsFoundVoiceCitiesAirSeaProgramFolksRadioGrandmotherIntroducingSailorCrackedFolk MusicGreat CountryYoung ActorsBanjosYour GrandmotherFolk Songs Author:Pete Seeger
“To me, achieving tone, achieving consistency, is exactly the job of a director. It is to be the fusing, the nexus of a whole bunch of people contributing to the complex life of a movie. There are actors, there's a cinematographer, there're costume people, set people, there are all these things, and you somehow have to be the person in the middle of it who is making it all synchronize into the same magic bubble.” PeoplePersonsWholeJobsActorsMagicMiddleAchieveDirectorsComplexesBunchToneBubblesConsistencyCostumesContributingCinematographersNexus Author:Edward Norton
“A lot of people want to judge the fact that I'm an actor. That's ridiculous. No one knows what I was doing before I made my first movie. I just happened to do it as an actor all the while I've been doing music, but never with the intention to become a screaming famous pop star.” PeopleKnowsWantFirstsMadeFactsActorsStarsHappenedJudgingIntentionPopsRidiculousPop Stars Author:Taryn Manning
“I'm not one of those actors who's very good at having a list of roles that I want to play someday - which is bad, because I really need to do it. I have people in theaters ask me what I want to do and I don't have an answer!” PeopleWantNeedsPlayActorsAsksAnswersRolesTheaterVery GoodListsAsk MeSomeday Author:Michael Cerveris
“People have an idea that the preacher is an actor on a stage and they are the critics, blaming or praising him. What they don't know is that they are the actors on the stage; he (the preacher) is merely the prompter standing in the wings, reminding them of their lost lines.” PeopleKnowsIdeasActorsLostLinesStageStandingPraiseBlameWingsCriticsPreacherReminding Author:Soren Kierkegaard