“Quite honestly I never had a desire to be an actor. I tell people, I did not choose acting; acting chose me. I never grew up wanting to be an actor. I wanted to play football. In about 9th grade an English teacher told me I had a talent to act. He said I should audition for a performing arts high school so I did on a whim. I got accepted.” PeopleShouldArtSaidPlayWantedSchoolDesireActorsActingTeacherTalentFootballGrewGrew UpHigh SchoolAcceptedHonestlyPerformingGradesAuditionsWhimPerforming ArtsEnglish Teacher Author:Ving Rhames
“I think I always wanted to be an actor - sounds a bit boring, doesn't it? And I pretended once that I wanted to be a vet because one of the teachers asked me and saying you want to be an actor sounds a little bit silly. And I do still feel a bit silly saying it. You feel a bit fraudulent.” ThinkingWantFeelsLittlesStillsWantedActorsBitsSoundTeacherLittle BitBoringSillyVets Author:Sophie Thompson
“I was going to be a High School teacher. I was studying at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, up in Canada. I was also acting in a wonderfully supportive theatre community in Edmonton. There's a lot of support for theatre there. So, I was having a great time, but I didn't consider acting as a serious career initially, because even the most successful actors that I know in Edmonton are not super successful. Acting over there is just not a success-oriented career.” KnowsSchoolActorsCommunityActingCareersSupportStudySuccessfulTeacherSeriousHigh SchoolUniversityTheatreCanadaSupportiveGreat TimesSchool TeachersAlbertaHigh School TeachersEdmonton Author:Nathan Fillion
“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.” MeanDoeRealPlayCharacterStoriesSeemsActorsActingTeacherHonestStudentsTruthfulTelling StoriesActing TeachersHonest Work Author:Stella Adler
“My dad was also a teacher until he was 34. I think there is a basis in reality. But I'd only done two jobs before I was an actor. I worked in a petrol station and I worked in a supermarket.” ThinkingTwoDoneRealityJobsActorsTeacherDadBasesMy DadStationsSupermarketsTwo JobsPetrol Author:Domhnall Gleeson
“I always wanted to be an actor, but in Edmonton, Alberta, that's not a success-oriented career. So I said, 'I'll get my (teaching) degree and then I'll see what happens, but I'll always have that to fall back on.' So if anybody were to look at me and say, 'Oh, you're an actor,' I could always say, 'Hey man, I'm a teacher!'” IfsMenLooksSaidHappensWantedFallActorsCareersTeacherTeachingDegreesHeyLook At MeFall BackAlbertaEdmonton Author:Nathan Fillion
“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.” WorldWayWantGivingFeelsKindArtBookYoungActorsActingTalkingBoysStruggleTeacherGreatnessGiving BackIntrovertedYoung ActorsMy StruggleStellaActing TeachersAdler Author:Mark Ruffalo
“While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors.” ActorsTeacherConceptsAstronaut Author:Joseph Gordon-Levitt
“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
“The theater audience is the ultimate teacher, instructing the actor on the degree to which he has executed both the author's and the director's intent.” ActorsAudienceTeacherDirectorsDegreesUltimateTheater Author:Joan Fontaine
“The fact of the matter is that when there are feelings involved and you like someone, it doesn't matter if you're an actor, a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, a receptionist - you can't really help it when you have feelings for someone.” IfsMatterFactsHelpingFeelingsActorsTeacherInvolvedDoctorsLawyerLiking SomeoneReceptionists Author:Jessica Szohr
“The child--a skilled actor with a hundred masks: a different one for his mother, father, grandmother or grandfather, for a stern or lenient teacher, for the cook or maid, for his own friends, for the rich and poor. Naive and cunning, humble and haughty, gentle and vengeful, well behaved and willful, he disguises himself so well that he can lead us by the nose.” WellsChildrenDifferentMotherActorsFatherPoorRichTeacherHundredHumbleCooksNosesGentleMaskGrandmotherGrandfatherDisguiseNaiveCunningRich And PoorMaidsHaughtyVengefulLenient Author:Janusz Korczak
“I certainly never expected to be a professional actor. I never expected to be in movies. I thought I would probably become a teacher.” ActorsTeacherExpected Author:Paul Newman
“At school, I was the classroom clown - I was always being thrown out for being naughty. Before I left, a teacher called me in and suggested I became an actor.” SchoolActorsLeftTeacherThrownClassroomClownNaughty Author:David Harewood
“To me, a lot of what makes a good actor is not what a teacher tells you to do but how you respond when youre on your own.” ActorsTeacherGood Actors Author:Glenne Headly
“Whether youre working in corporate America or youre a journalist, construction worker, a teacher or an actor - were all trying to keep working. If one job is ending, you look for another job. When Psych ends, I will be looking for another job.” IfsTryingLooksEndsJobsAmericaActorsTeacherWorkersCorporateJournalistConstructionCorporate AmericaPsychConstruction Workers Author:Dule Hill
“I wouldn't be an actor if it weren't for the English teacher I had my junior year in high school. She's the one who told me I could be an actor. I had never met an actor, I had never seen a real play, only high school plays. I didn't know actors were real, that it was a real job.” IfsKnowsYearsRealPlaySchoolJobsActorsTeacherMetsHigh SchoolJuniorsReal JobsEnglish TeacherSchool PlaysJunior Year Author:Julianne Moore
“I had three influential teachers. The first was Uta Hagen. The second two, Bobby Lewis and my late husband, Charles Kakatsakis, were both from the Actors Studio.” FirstsTwoThreeActorsTeacherHusbandLateStudiosInfluential Author:June Squibb
“If you say "I'm going to be an actor, but I'll get a teaching degree just in case," when things get hard, you'll just be a teacher and that's how you get stuck.” IfsHardActorsCasesTeacherTeachingDegreesStuck Author:Michael Ian Black
“I was a B student in math, simply because my teachers liked me, as an actor.” ActorsTeacherStudentsMath Author:Morgan Freeman
“I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it. I think we ask too many questions of ourselves. We make too much importance of stuff. But I do say to actors when I have taught in classes, or when I sometimes do a talk to a group. I'll say, “If I never acted again, the world wouldn't stop, nor would it stop if I didn't stop acting. That's how important it is. I know it [seems] important when you're young. But I say, “Lighten up. Don't take it all so seriously.” All the gurus and teachers will take your money and run.” IfsThinkingKnowsWorldImportantSometimesSeemsRunningYoungActorsAsksStuffEnjoyActingClassToo MuchTeacherGroupsTaughtImportanceGuru Author:Anthony Hopkins
“I had interest in acting. I started as a drama major in college. I got to school and said, "What am I going to do with this?" But I didn't know anybody in the business, and it seemed like - I don't know. I had a teacher who said "Less than 1 percent of you will ever make a living being an actor." That was how we opened the semester.” KnowsSaidSchoolActorsInterestActingTeacherCollegeDramaMajorsPercentSemester Author:Greg Kinnear
“When I was 11 I played the part of Rumpelstiltskin and my teacher told me I would make a great actor.” ActorsTeacherGreat Actors Author:Brian Blessed
“It doesn't matter if a character is a lawyer, a cop or a geography teacher. If there's a story in there, where the character has a passion and a fire in his belly and story to tell, then it's enough for an actor to get excited about.” IfsMatterEnoughCharacterStoriesPassionActorsFireTeacherExcitedLawyerCopBellyGeographyGeography Teachers Author:Clive Standen
“Any place where you have to deal with many social actors like a school - you have the parents, the Ministry of Education, the school board, and the teachers - you need all kinds of sets and rules. You're trying to foresee anything that can happen and everything becomes really rigid. They don't want to talk about death because they don't want to overwhelm the children, but that has already happened, so you're not going to overwhelm them more.” WantNeedsTryingKindChildrenHappensSchoolActorsSocialParentDealsTeacherHappenedAll KindsBoardsMinistrySchool Board Author:Philippe Falardeau
“Even when I was an actor in training, one criticism my teachers had was that I should think about directing instead of acting because the best actors see the material they’re working on through blinders. They can’t see anything but their role. I could never really do that.” ThinkingShouldActorsActingRolesTeacherMaterialsTrainingCriticismBlinders Author:Jason Alexander
“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.'” IfsWorldCharacterStoriesJobsActorsViewsActingTeacherPersonalityAspectInstrumentsAccessRangeGreat ActorsEffortlessWorld ViewVantage PointActing Teachers Author:Jack Lemmon
“I was always drawn toward the Actor's Studio. I studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute when I first came to New York. One of my favorite teachers was one of Al [Pachino]'s teachers, a guy named Charlie Laughton, who was just a wonderful, wonderful man.” MenFirstsGuyActorsTeacherWonderfulNew YorkMy FavoriteStudiosAlsCharlieInstituteWonderful Man Author:Karen Allen