If you want to be an actor, you must have total, ruthless commitment to your art. Don't be ambitious for fame or TV or movies. Art is a jealous mistress and will brook no competitors. Study all the time. Never stop reading. Never stop learning speeches. It will fill you up - define and refine you.
Interpretation
Total commitment to your craft is essential for success in the arts.
This quote emphasizes the importance of unwavering dedication to the art of acting. Steven Berkoff suggests that aspiring actors must prioritize their craft above all else, including the pursuit of fame and recognition, and that continuous study and learning are vital for personal and artistic growth.
In practice
In a motivational speech to aspiring actors, this quote can inspire them to dedicate themselves fully.
I make my films because I'm affected by a situation, by something that makes me want to reflect on it, that lends itself to an artistic reflection. I always aim to look directly at what I'm dealing with. I think it's a task of dramatic art to confront us with things that in the entertainment industry are usually swept under the rug.
The painter must give a completely free rein to any feeling or sensations he may have and reject nothing to which he is naturally drawn.
My clothes have a story. They have an identity. They have a character and a purpose. That's why they become classics. Because they keep on telling a story. They are still telling it.
I got this idea of doing a really serious big work-it would be precisely like a novel, with a single difference: Every word of it would be true from beginning to end.
Usually in theater, the visual repeats the verbal. The visual dwindles into decoration. But I think with my eyes. For me, the visual is not an afterthought, not an illustration of the text. If it says the same thing as the words, why look? The visual must be so compelling that a deaf man would sit though the performance fascinated.
I have a vocabulary in clothing. It's like a whole language.
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