Acting is a sport, like a game of tennis, and you and your opponent take turns setting the level of play.
In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.
I was shying away from acting for the longest time - because of having such big shoes to fill.
I watched a lot of TV, and it clicked one day that these people were acting. It sounded like the most fun thing ever.
There's so much more to life than that, though I think that acting is fascinating because you can forget your own sorrow as you act and become somebody else.
Still, it's tough trying to combine my acting career with my college career.
I dropped the script in the fireplace, called my agent and said, they can jail me, sue me, but I'm never acting again, unless I can do something worthwhile.
I love the simplicity of Kevin Spacey's work. He really does a subtle interpretation of every character, and that's kind of my style of acting when it comes to dramatic roles.
Sometimes my mistake has been hesitancy about acting on the decisions I've made. When's the best time to invest? It's today, not tomorrow.
A producer has to know all about everything from set-building to costumes to acting.
Acting must be scaled down for the screen. A drawing room is a lot smaller than a theatre auditorium.
There are some actors who are very good at developing things, who have... 'things in the pipeline.' I am abysmal at that kind of thing, loathe it, and am a terrible planner. Unless I'm showing up on the set and acting, I prefer to have nothing to do with the actual business of being an actor.
Acting has always been something I've wanted to get into. I think the best models are actors; you're taking on a character. In that sense, I have been acting for a long time. It didn't seem like a crazy transition.
The great difference between screen acting and theatre acting is that screen acting is about reacting - 75% of the time, great screen actors are great reactors.
From an acting standpoint, you've got to continue to trust your gut because, ultimately, only that will result in a better product, making the audience more happy and resulting in the right payoff.
I was never that famous, but I do think going to college and really getting away from the business and taking a true break is incredibly, incredibly important if you start acting at a young age.
I had an acting coach while I was doing the show and every week I could see my work improving. I really liked working on the show because I was learning new things every day.
Whites would accuse you of causing trouble when all you were doing was acting like a normal human being instead of cringing.
One of the reasons I love acting is because I'm so interested in other people's lives, and I often incorporate things I hear or observe into my work. I've become a bit of a 'person addict,' and so I like brushing up against lots of different characters.
My biggest accomplishment was playing 'Lark' on the daytime drama Port Charles because it was the most regular acting job I have had, and I had to step in and fill someone else's shoes.
Whether it be in acting, music, or even in dancing, I only want to do things that I truly connect to, and with my music, it's everything that I am.
In my experience it's not essential to get on with the person that you're acting opposite.
The thing I hate most in acting is asking permission to do things. What you really want to do is say, 'This is my need; this is what's going to get me further; this is what's going to be alive. I don't ever say, 'Do you mind if...?' I just come in and do it.
Of course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false.
Next to acting, being in the great outdoors is my biggest passion.
I wanted to stay in New York to pursue acting, but my dad urged me to get a four-year degree. Reading about the film school at Florida State University, he suggested I go there. I received my bachelor's degree in 2003.
I didn't learn anything about acting until I joined the Group Theatre. They taught me an entirely new approach, an entirely new technique.
Getting all dressed up and putting on fancy clothes - all of that's a great thing, but oddly, it doesn't really have a lot to do with acting most of the time.
Baseball player. Yeah, that was my dream before acting, or alongside acting.
I would never have changed anything in the past. I have been acting for 32 years now and I feel so lucky to be able to have done exactly what I wanted to do.
This is one of the reasons I like to act - it's because acting forces you into situations you don't know.
I didn't know how capable I was until the people around me in acting school would say I was good.
I had never done any serious acting before, but I decided that it was a chance that I should take.
I do paint, and I wanted to actually be a painter. Sometimes I'll whip out paints. It's tough to find the motivation, but it's also a solitary, lonely occupation. What I like about acting is that it is such a collaborative thing.
I got the acting bug back because I felt like all of a sudden maybe after all these years, maybe I might have something to offer again. I walked away from it after 'Signs' because I just felt I was a bit stale and it wasn't ringing my bells, so I focused on directing, writing and producing.
I wanted to go to acting school, and I did a few modeling jobs to pay for acting school. I never aspired to be a model. I met lots of photographers, and I learned a lot about light - as a source of love and illumination, light as a gift of love. On film, that's a massive contribution.
