Quotes on Actors

Whether in success or in failure, I'm proud of every single movie I've ever directed.

A rapper is about being completely true to yourself. Being an actor is about changing who you are.

Actors use who they are to be someone else, but I would hate to ever think I'm playing myself. It's imagining being someone else that is the key motivating thing for me. So when people want to know about me, it makes me a bit unnerved.

There are not a lot of places for an actor to explore what it's like to be a woman in her 60s. There aren't any films about it and there very few TV series about it.

I can't think of a more pathetic situation for an actor than to do a film and not connect to it. And I pray to God that I never face that situation.

Learn your lines… plant your feet… look the other actor in the eye… say the words… mean them.

Inevitably, every part an actor plays contains some of himself.

To my mind, the actor has this great responsability of playing another human being… it’s like taking on another person’s life and you have to do it as sincerely and honestly as you can.

We are not what we seem. We are more than what we seem. The actor knows that. And because the actor knows that hidden inside himself there's a wizard and a king, he also knows that when he's playing himself in his daily life, he's playing a part, he's performing, just as he's performing when he plays a part on stage.

Nothing makes an actor feel freer and more inventive and more creative than being trusted.

Are there differences between black actors’ opportunities and white actors’ opportunities? Yes, there are. It’s been said.

The actor must use his imagination to be able to answer all questions (when, where, why, how). Make the make-believer existence more definite.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

When an actor is completely absorbed by some profoundly moving objective so that he throws his whole being passionately into its execution, he reaches a state we call inspiration.

For me, film-making is combining images and sounds of real things in an order that makes them effective. What I disapprove of is photographing things that are not real. Sets and actors are not real.

People say you should do it this way, someone else suggests that, yes, there's financing, but maybe you should use this actor. And there are the threats, at the end - if you don't do it this way, you'll lose your box office; if you don't do it that way, you'll never get financed again... 35, 40 years of this, you get beat up.

Most of us do not consciously look at movies.

I became an actor at a very young age, but I also had a deep respect for nature and I think I was sort of a little biologist when I was younger. I watched documentaries on rainforest pollution and the loss of species and habitats for animals around the world. It affected me in a very hardcore, emotional way when I was younger. So, later in life I wanted to continue that path more and investigate and learn more about ecological issues.

It is better for me to serve a charity as an actor or a voice, rather than at a luncheon being just a celebrity.

Stage charm guarantees in advance an actor's hold on the audience, it helps him to carry over to large numbers of people his creative purposes. It enhances his roles and his art. Yet it is of utmost importance that he use this precious gift with prudence, wisdom, and modesty. It is a great shame when he does not realize this and goes on to exploit, to play on his ability to charm.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.