I saw that I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. So I made a choice to use my career as a platform to address the issues of the race I was born into.
Cicely TysonRead
How do you project a character if you don't have a sense of where she is from? I've always just gotten on a plane to go to the area to get a sense of what it is like, to smell it, feel the earth, hear people talk, go to the marketplaces.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding a character requires immersion in their environment.
Cicely Tyson emphasizes the importance of experiencing a character's background and environment to authentically portray them. She believes that traveling to the location, engaging with the community, and experiencing the sights and sounds helps an actor capture the essence of their role more genuinely.
Themes
CharacterEnvironmentImmersionAuthenticityActing
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on acting, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of research and immersive experiences.
More from Cicely Tyson
All quotes →I don't think you can measure wealth in dollars and cents. I really don't believe that at all because there are some things that money cannot buy. One of them is health. And the other is security in your relationships and friends.
Cicely TysonRead
One of the things I have always said about the man-woman relationship is that I don't want anybody to walk ahead of me, and I don't want anybody to walk behind me. I want a man who will walk along beside me. And that's how I feel about equal rights.
Cicely TysonRead
Unless a piece really said something, I had no interest in it. I have got to know that I have served some purpose here.
Cicely TysonRead
When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know anything. If it's good I don't want to hear it; if it's bad I don't want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused
Cicely TysonRead
We have to support our own films. If we don't, how can we expect others to support them?
Cicely TysonRead
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