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Good actors I've worked with all started out making faces in a mirror, and you keep making faces all your life.
Bette Davis
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The essence of acting lies in self-exploration and continuous expression.

Bette Davis emphasizes that good actors develop their craft by engaging in self-reflection and experimentation, which begins in childhood and remains a lifelong journey. The act of making faces in a mirror symbolizes the exploration of emotions and identities, suggesting that acting is not just a profession but a profound and ongoing process of self-expression.

Themes

ActingSelf-ExpressionArtCreativityReflection

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can inspire actors in a drama workshop to embrace their craft with authenticity.

More from Bette Davis

I am doomed to an eternity of compulsive work. No set goal achieved satisfies. Success only breeds a new goal. The golden apple devoured has seeds. It is endless.
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I have been uncompromising, peppery, intractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile, and oftentimes disagreeable... I suppose I'm larger than life.
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Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
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Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition.
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Once the love bug wears off, as it inevitably does, you are shocked to discover that you really didn't know the object of your affections at all. We know this to be so, even as we repeat the same mistake over and over and over.
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If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.
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