It was the moment I learned acting is not acting out. After that light went on, I spent the rest of my life trying to figure out how to make other people realize it.
William HurtRead
The enemies of acting are mood and attitude and other general homogenized disruptive entities. Whereas acting is about action - doing - and unless you can figure out a way to craft in an imaginative reality to which you don't submit, you're going to be out of control. You'll flip out. The job is to be surprised.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Acting requires overcoming emotional distractions and embracing creativity.
In this quote, William Hurt emphasizes that the essence of acting lies in action and creativity, challenging the actors to rise above their moods and attitudes. He suggests that if actors do not engage with their imaginative potential, they risk becoming overwhelmed and losing control in their performances, indicating the importance of surprise in the acting process.
Themes
ActingCreativityMoodActionImagination
In practice
Example use cases
A theater director can use this quote to inspire their actors before a rehearsal.
More from William Hurt
All quotes →You cut off the capacity for grief in your life, and you cut off the joy at the same time. They both come up through the same tunnel. You don't have one without the other.
William HurtRead
You get older, and people start passing away. And so if you're lucky - my mom died very young, for instance, and I have friends who died very young - but the point being that, I think if you're awake, you know you're going to pass on. And that the real treasure in life is the long term - relationships that you really value.
William HurtRead
But I am not going to live for ever. And the more I know it, the more amazed I am by being here at all.
William HurtRead
I'm coming from the notion that acting is an art. It is not a business. It is about building characters, not about selling personalities.
William HurtRead
The problem with Google is you have 360 degrees of omnidirectional information on a linear basis, but the algorithms for irony and ambiguity are not there. And those are the algorithms of wisdom.
William HurtRead
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