As an actor I am always waiting for my luck to run out.
Tom HanksRead
Now, learning how to make a movie is something you can figure out in about an afternoon. The physics of it, the marks, the lights, etc. What's hard to do is to suspend your own feelings of self consciousness. The natural actors can do that; they can become part of a characterization and learn how to maintain it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Making a movie technically is easy, but overcoming self-consciousness to perform authentically is challenging.
In this quote, Tom Hanks emphasizes the difference between the technical aspects of filmmaking, which can be learned quickly, and the emotional depth required from actors. He suggests that true acting involves immersing oneself in a character, which necessitates overcoming personal insecurities and self-awareness, a task that distinguishes natural actors from others.
Themes
ActingSelf ConsciousnessFilmmakingEmotionCharacterization
In practice
Example use cases
Use the quote during a film class to highlight the emotional challenges actors face.
More from Tom Hanks
All quotes →Even the simplest choice can make a jaw-dropping difference in our world.
Tom HanksRead
My kid could get a bad X-ray and I could get a call from the doctor saying I have something growing in my bum and that would change my perspective on everything instantaneously, on what is and what is not important.
Tom HanksRead
Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?
Tom HanksRead
I think it's better to feel good than to look good.
Tom HanksRead
If you look at romantic comedies as pieces of commerce, the audience is looking for wish fulfillment.
Tom HanksRead
Similar quotes
Rock'n'roll is an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock'n'roll, or a movie can be rock'n'roll. It's a way of living your life.
Lester BangsRead
At different moments you see with different eyes. You see differently in the morning than you do in the evening. In addition, how you see is also dependent on your emotional state. Because of this, a motif can be seen in many different ways, and this is what makes art interesting.
Edvard MunchRead
When I'm about to train a new opera, I first listen to how Jussi Björling did it. His voice was unique and it's his path that I want to follow. I would more than anything else wish that people compared me with Jussi Björling. It's like so I'm striving to sing.
Luciano PavarottiRead
Ten years before its time, a fashion is indecent; ten years after, it is hideous; but a century after, it is romantic.
James LaverRead
The stories are not autobiographical, but they're personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I've learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.
Alice MunroRead
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.
Winston ChurchillRead