The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.
Comedy was why I got into acting the first place. Peter Sellers was a huge influence on my wanting to act. I grew up with him and found him hysterical. The Pink Panther films were an inspiration, from my earliest childhood days, when I was watching them with my brother and my dad.
When I started out, I had no idea what I was doing. I was 16, and acting was a new, exciting thing. So, I took it on. It was an excuse to get away from college.
It's just acting. I take acting seriously but up to a point.
What happens on 'Mad Men' in terms of the acting and the writing and the directing, it's superior. And yes, it has tremendous cache and buzz because it's become iconic, but it also deserves all the kudos and the awards as well, because it's a beautiful show to look at.
There was a time when I wanted to be a lawyer, or even a professional triathlete... But nothing could come close to the passion I have for acting.
My goals are to continue acting and also to produce some independent films in the next few years. Music is a passion of mine, so I also want to continue along that path, creating with my friends.
With 'Shameless,' 'Homeland' and 'American Horror Story,' these are all shows that don't follow a particular mold, and they are out-there. The acting is spectacular.
My culture doesn't regard acting highly.
I don't watch anything of mine much. I haven't gone to drama school, or college, either. I just like to watch other actors in action. I learned so much from working with De Niro. I'd be in a scene with him where I was supposed to be acting, and I was just watching.
When I was younger, I always liked acting. You know, like, acting locally, or community theater at school. But it's not an especially insured career choice, so I was like, 'It's a hobby. Whatever.'
For me, acting is all about the aesthetic. I just want to keep honing my craft. Not that I'm taking myself too seriously, but every artist should consider himself Picasso. Otherwise, you're doing yourself an injustice.
I think I am a religious person just by nature. I think I sort of view everything through the lens of some inner undying thing in people that drives them to act as they do or to feel ashamed of not acting in some other way.
That's the thing about acting - you can't fake it.
I say I'm not shy, but... Acting is a very vulnerable experience, and you've got to be really confident to put yourself out there to be judged.
Singing is still my number one. This whole acting thing, it's just for experience, and I just want the people to know that I have other stuff that I really love that I really wanna share with them.
Growing up in this post-apartheid era, the first generation of teens in South Africa living in this new democracy, I often found myself feeling different. I was often the only person of color in an otherwise all-white school. And within the Indian community, because of my training with an English acting teacher, my accent was very different.
My introduction to acting was through theatre, so I actually saw a couple of Broadway shows that made me want to be an actor.
I'm lucky because my two best friends are from kindergarten so they never thought that it was a big deal that I was in acting; they don't even ever talk about it. They still act all confused, like, 'What's going on?' when we go places and people come up to me.
Whenever I think of the high salaries we are paid as film actors, I think it is for the travel, the time away, and any trouble you get into through being well known. It's not for the acting, that's for sure.
Alan Alda and his wife Arlene are two of the most life-affirming people I've ever met. He espoused equal rights for women while producing, writing, acting in and directing 'M*A*S*H'; he used to commute between the set and home because he didn't want to disrupt his kids' schooling.
I met my agent when I was 10 years old on a family skiing vacation. He asked if I was interested in acting, and I had been doing school plays. A couple of years later, I called him up, and I started auditioning.
I know you're always supposed to want more of everything. But in truth, I'm having a nice ebb and flow of being in my daughter's life every day and getting to keep my work life alive. I'm not nominated for ten thousand everythings every minute, but I am acting and telling stories I love.
Acting is exciting. It is different every time you do it.
Where else do you find great directors? Acting is one of the places.
I feel like music and acting are so much my love, and they're so much equal in my eyes. I couldn't really choose between the two.
With 'Taxi Driver,' I had this eureka moment. I realized that acting could be much more than what I had been doing. I had to build a character that wasn't me.
I haven't actually studied acting at all.
Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.
When we don't have all the details about our characters, we have to make it up to fill in all the details. So, for me, writing and acting go hand in hand.
I've been acting since I was 9, so not exactly a baby.
Before discovering theater, I was sloughing off and didn't have any passion for school. Then I couldn't get enough. All of a sudden, I was getting good parts in all of these plays. I just loved it. I started getting A's in acting, directing and technical theater. I found something that clicked.
When I was at school, I was terrible at algebra and arithmetic, but I was always the best at English and literature. And acting, of course.
I didn't intend to be an actress. It was one of many things I was interested in, and it just took off. I was an actress between the ages of 18 and 22, and it was a wonderful, fun thing to do, but it wasn't what I intended long term. I parked acting a long time ago.
I like making people feel things. Acting doesn't seem like lying but like storytelling.
Acting is an odd lifestyle. You make deep bonds quickly and, though you move on, you go around on a loop and see people again.
