Actors are responsible to the people we play.
Interpretation
Actors have a duty to authentically portray the characters and stories they bring to life on screen.
In this quote, Philip Seymour Hoffman emphasizes that actors hold a significant responsibility to the audience and the characters they embody. They must approach their roles with sincerity and integrity, as their performances can influence perceptions and understanding of the narratives they tell, ultimately connecting with the audience on a deeper level.
In practice
When discussing the ethical implications of storytelling in film classes.
I think I would have drank myself to death, literally, if I didn't just stop, once and for all when I did. I am not ever going to preach to anyone about drugs or drinking. But, for me, when they were around, I had no self control.
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.
Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.
I've had to make the transition from sweeping in for 15 minutes, doing my stuff and clearing out, to carrying a movie for the duration - in a dress.
I had insecurities and fears like everybody does, and I got over it. But I was interested in the parts of me that struggled with those things.
I didn't have any idea that I would be able to have a career in film.
To him the stars seemed like so many musical notes affixed to the sky, just waiting for somebody to unfasten them. Someday the sky would be emptied, but by then the earth would be a constellation of musical scores
[People] want me to finish things. But I see them in such a way and paint them accordingly. ... Nothing is simpler than to complete pictures in a superficial sense. Never does one lie so cleverly as then.
My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.
A dancer must listen to his body and pay homage to it. Behind the movement lies this terrible, driving passion, this necessity. I won't settle for anything less.
Cubism did not accept the logical consequences of its own discoveries; it was not developing abstraction towards its own goal, the expression of pure reality.
A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.