I've been chasing my music dream for a very long time and the acting dream just came up. But there are musical things I want to show the world, so that's my next step.
The whole thing about acting, the draw for me, is the opportunity to do things you don't get to do in real life.
My first film was with Cuba Gooding Jr, 'The Fighting Temptations,' and I had a little part here and there on little shows as guest stars. And I've taken acting classes.
There's no subtext in 'Harry Potter,' really; it's all magic - anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it. Doesn't say much for acting, does it?
There's a Zen to acting, by being in the moment. That's where the power is.
When I was younger, I started taking singing lessons and dance and acting. I just started acting first because that's how everything happened.
I hardly knew anything when I first arrived. I had to learn how to act as I went along. After about a year I got a grip on what acting was all about and it started coming straight from my heart; I wasn't just saying the words any longer.
Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for.
You never really think about what happens after the Olympics - you're just like, 'I want to compete. I want to do well' and thinking about that. After it all happened, it was such a whirlwind. I've gotten to do so many amazing things. My favorite thing was getting into acting.
I think acting, for me, is about play. It's about time, and it's about feeling, like there's a story to tell and I can tell it through my body and my voice.
My first interest was always music, and somehow that channelled itself into films and acting. I don't know what the natural transition of it was. I mean I acted a little bit when I was young and like any kid would in a community theatre.
Egos are an occupational hazard in acting, but I don't have much of one, and my husband doesn't have much of one, so it's good.
If you took acting away from me, I'd stop breathing.
As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.
My point is that, over the years, I've taught five thousand people acting and lately I have a lot of energy on these kids, having the same break I had as a high school girl.
I actually wanted to be an exotic dancer, but that didn't work out so I thought I'd take on acting.
The difference - the fundamental difference between theater acting and film acting is that film acting is disjunctive.
I know what I love about acting - and it's the creative process.
I've moved into directing as well as acting, and it has taught me never to take casting personally.
After 'Prom Night' I did two movies where I was playing a prostitute. I gravitate towards characters that have some sort of inner turmoil or some sort of character arc. That's the great thing about acting, so many different things and being really diverse in your choices.
In my stand up, I think I try to be less energetic because I feel embarrassed about how much enthusiasm I have. There's something about acting like I don't care, or if I act like I haven't spent enough time on it, it seems to go better. If I act like I'm really trying to sell it, it doesn't go as well.
I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting.
I really like acting in English.
Acting makes you live plenty of lives.
We lived and breathed acting.
I've had plenty of crappy jobs, but the only job I've ever really dedicated myself to has been acting. It's my life.
Acting means living, it's all I do and all I'm good at. If I weren't getting paid well, I would still be acting in a small troupe somewhere.
I wouldn't go up on a stage now if you paid a thousand dollars for one minute of acting. It's a nasty experience. You're up there all by yourself. You're so damn exposed.
When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings - singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it.
I love acting and making your own luck. You have to recreate yourself, I guess. Although, I don't know how.
You're in this constant state of flux and transition, as if you had jet lag all the time. The acting part of it is easy. It's all the other things that come with it that are a bit difficult.
Seriously I suspected I was a good actor, though I didn't know it during 'Monsoon Wedding.' Now I realize the more I learn, the less I know about acting... and life.
I never thought about acting before I started modeling, but since then I've been in short films and music videos, and I got interested. It felt natural to switch over.
In acting class, teachers talk about how the 'givens' of a situation help define a character.
Zhang is a friend of mine: he said forget about acting and just do normal things in the movie.
It was always theater for me. But part of that came out of the fact that I was always acting out as a kid. I was the kid who didn't play well with others.
