When it's working, what acting is really about is getting into the essence of a moment in a creative, joyous way - through whatever frees you up.
I did flirt with the idea of going to law school, but not for long. Maybe I'll play a lawyer one day - the beauty of acting is that you can try on so many different roles without having to commit to them in real life.
Someone will always hate what I say. There's always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting.
I always treat all the jobs I do as an acting class.
I have a degree in European history, which didn't necessarily have any direct impact on my career, but I'm grateful I studied something other than acting in college.
The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting.
Character actors are becoming a thing of the past. They're just going by the wayside. They're just cutting through that caliber of acting.
I write my plays to create an excuse for full-tilt acting and performing.
Other people have often had more faith in me than I had in myself - I never thought I could pull off Roberta Muldoon in 'The World According to Garp,' or 'Of Mice and Men's' Lennie as one of my first acting jobs.
Acting is a very limited form of expression and those who take it seriously are very limited people. I take it seriously.
I never thought acting would be my life. I only started doing it because I needed something to occupy my weekends after I dislocated my knee and couldn't play sport.
I pick up a lot of stuff from them, but I don't think there's any great trick to acting.
I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought, 'Well if acting doesn't work for him, he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately, the acting worked out.
Absolutely not, because in acting I've found a domain that suits me perfectly. And that is so utterly rare.
True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one's true character, to be altogether one's self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.
I have been doing so much. Speaking engagements... producing... developing a half-hour sitcom... working on a movie... leading acting workshops all over the world... and hosting 'My Black Is Beautiful,' an empowerment TV show I'm doing on BET for women.
I'm a fan of making films. Whether I'm on stage or in front of a camera, one of my first loves is performing for the people. I'd like to do more acting.
Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people.
I'm at least getting my foot in the door as far as doing straight dramatic parts, which no one would have ever considered me for in the '80s. I never objected to that because I love doing comedy, and I'm not the kind of actor that insists that unless you're doing a serious dramatic role, you're not acting.
We made one film called Thy Neighbor's Wife in which I got flogged at the public whipping post for adultery. I did my best acting in that film, I guess.
The enemies of acting are mood and attitude and other general homogenized disruptive entities. Whereas acting is about action - doing - and unless you can figure out a way to craft in an imaginative reality to which you don't submit, you're going to be out of control. You'll flip out. The job is to be surprised.
I have a long way to go as far as my acting career is concerned. Lots of milestones are to be achieved and dreams to be fulfilled. I would someday want to do playback singing, too, as I am a very passionate singer.
I want to continue acting as long as I can because being on the sets is a big stress buster for me. I can't possibly think of stopping my visits to the sets because I'm old.
We've got a dictatorial president and a Justice Department that does not want Congress involved. Your guy's acting like he's king. His dad was at a 90 percent approval rating and he lost! And the same thing can happen to him!
You start acting in spite of your neuroses, not because of them.
I find acting slightly nerve racking, but I like the challenge.
Yeah, I've only been acting since I was 18 out of high school.
I don't know if this is why everything has worked so well and I'm not sure I'd recommend this kind of thinking to anyone else, but I've always known I'd be successful in acting. I have certainly worked for it.
Music is definitely something that I'd like to pursue. It's probably, I mean, the acting and music are the two biggest things in my life.
I started acting without any vocation. I continued out of love.
I enjoyed being in movies when I was a boy. As a child you're not acting - you believe.
I'm a God-fearing man, and I know the only reason why I am here going from poverty to where I am now is God has His hand on my life. I tell people, 'I didn't choose acting; God chose me to act.'
You really have to act on the force, too. You're involved in a hundred things a day, and you have to react in a hundred different ways, depending on what's going on. And you learn that as you go through your career, how you handle certain situations, interrogations, how you carry yourself. There's a kind of acting to it.
I've always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.
My advice has always been to study the craft of acting if you want to be an actor. There are many great schools that teach acting. NYU being one of them.
I think I'm more the method acting school.
