A good actor always sets you straight. If you've written a false moment and thought it was probably pretty great, the actor's gonna show you when he gets to that moment. They're the great test of the validity of the material.
Sam ShepardRead
I never considered myself a movie star, and I didn't want to become a movie star, because as soon as you do, you throw away that possibility of playing character. You really do. All of a sudden you're just an entity, you know?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the trade-off between fame and the ability to fully embody a character.
Sam Shepard expresses his disdain for the label of 'movie star,' implying that such a title limits an actor's ability to immerse themselves in diverse roles. By becoming a recognizable figure, an actor risks being seen merely as their public persona rather than an artist capable of portraying an array of characters with depth and complexity.
Themes
ActingIdentityCreativityFameCharacter
In practice
Example use cases
During a film festival panel on acting, one might quote Shepard to illustrate the contrast between fame and artistic integrity.
More from Sam Shepard
All quotes →I stay away from heavy-handed stuff, the good guy and the bad guy. It just doesn't interest me; all it does is create more fences between people, I think.
Sam ShepardRead
I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster. … The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment? The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That’s genius.
Sam ShepardRead
There are places where writing is acting and acting is writing. I'm not so interested in the divisions. I'm interested in the way things cross over.
Sam ShepardRead
Democracy's a very fragile thing. You have to take care of democracy. As soon as you stop being responsible to it and allow it to turn into scare tactics, it's no longer democracy, is it? It's something else. It may be an inch away from totalitarianism.
Sam ShepardRead
On stage, you're not limited at all because you're free in language: language is the source of the imagination. You can travel farther in language than you can in any film.
Sam ShepardRead
Similar quotes
I think the only thing filmmakers can do is try to make good movies and make them as long as they allow us to keep making them. But at the end of the day, it is a business, and if audiences don't care, there's nothing we can do. It'll just go away, I guess.
Robert ZemeckisRead
Searching for music is like searching for God. They're very similar. There's an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don't exist.
David BowieRead
I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.
Herbie HancockRead
Suffice to say that the theme (the WHAT of the movie) is going to determine the style (the HOW of the movie).
Sidney LumetRead
If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it
Isadora DuncanRead
Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace Robes loosely flowing, hair as free Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art: They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
Ben JonsonRead