Well, you put a little piece of yourself into every character that you do. Even if you're playing some psychotic person, which of course I'm not, some part of you is in that character and it's hopefully believable. I always come back to the fact that my own instinct is better than something I build in my mind.
Interpretation
Every character an actor portrays includes a reflection of their own self, making them relatable and believable.
In this quote, Scarlett Johansson emphasizes the intrinsic connection between an actor and their characters. She suggests that even when playing someone vastly different from themselves, there is still a fragment of their own personality infused within, contributing to the authenticity of the portrayal. This connection highlights the importance of instinct in an actor's performance as opposed to intellectual constructs created in the mind.
In practice
During an acting workshop, to inspire fellow actors to embrace their unique traits.
I don't think there's any kind of preparation for sudden celebrity. I think you almost have this slight nervous breakdown when that kind of media attention happens. I mean, you're doing the same kind of thing that you do all the time, only you have to make these weird adjustments. Like, you're buying a slice of pizza and somebody's outside photographing you which is weird - that's not normal! It's very uncomfortable.
I don't want to be the ingenue anymore. It's nice to be glamorous, but I don't want to always be an object of desire. Because it doesn't last.
In contrast to the written account-which, depending on its complexity of thought, reference, and vocabulary, is pitched at a larger or smaller readership-a photograph has only one language and is destined potentially for all.
Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can't fool anybody into buying a record.
So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery, and the sacrifice of wealth and chastity which used to be said to be the greatest of human disasters, a mere flea-bite in comparison.
I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before.
We watch a romantic comedy because we want to cry, say, or an action movie so we can participate in heroics. Horror's different. It can hit you with a moment of revulsion so hard you might want to erase the last five minutes of your life, please.
My method of getting a play across the footlights is like a revolver shooting: every line has a bullet in it and comes with an explosion.
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