I'm constantly watching people. Watching their strengths and weaknesses. I find myself going into theater less and less, let alone horror. I gave that up when I was seven or eight years old.
My family was going back to England to visit my mother's grandmother, who was very ill. We went up to Liverpool and I met my great-aunt, who was just a force of nature. She was an elocution teacher and a huge enthusiast for theater and the classics. I took her amateur acting class, and she was really impressed with me.
Give me an 18-hour day on set or in the theater, and I will be the happiest person alive.
I had a big part of my life in the theater in Philadelphia. Philadelphia's changed, but I love it.
I directed a piece of theater in Italy. We took nine fables from the town and we created a play.
People who are powerless make an open theater of violence.
I happen to love working in cinema, but the theater is always there... you know, and I would never shut the door on it. Even though it's been quite a bit of time since I've done a play, last one was in New York.
Theater dates very quickly.
I used to work at a movie theater and sold hams at Honey Baked Ham during the holidays. I sold a ton of hams, and they offered me a regular job there, which I turned down. I feel like anything you do, just do it 100% because then that work ethic will bleed through when it's time to work on your dreams.
When I'm not working, I don't mix with actors, really. I have about two or three friends from theater school, and we call each other and meet. But in the main, no. I'm more happy with musicians or horse riders or sailors.
Basically, theater or film is a dangerous industrial environment.
I began thinking I would do musical theater because in high school that was really the only sort of curriculum they had as far as getting onstage and doing anything that anybody would see. So that's what I did.
There's a lot of pressure on a film set that's more immediate than the pressure in the theater where you're nervous about what's going to happen next week.
I have a passion to do theater.
At early previews, the theater gossips are there, wishing you ill every night. They don't grant you any slack. Agents are in from Hollywood. Your friends are there. People who are going to spread the word-of-mouth. If something doesn't work, everyone will know.
My show in Egypt was called, 'The Show,' or, 'Al Bernameg' in Arabic. Basically, it was a political satire show. It started on Internet by three, four-minute episodes, and then it evolved into a live show in a theater, which was something that was unprecedented in the Arab world.
I think movies are a director's medium in the end. Theater is the actor's medium. Theater is fast, and enjoyable, and truly rewarding. I believe in great live performance.
I have spent my whole life working in the theater, and most of the people I know have done the same. And we are pretty interesting people.
I knew that I could sing when I was young. I would listen to a lot of jazz; I'm a big jazz fan. When I first got to high school and studied musical theater, I could sing. But I added certain things to my voice, and I realized after graduating high school that this is the kind of voice I had. It's not very nimble, but it's heavy.
I was being groomed to be the theatrical caricaturist. And I know if I got that job, I'd never quit. So I quit. I knew I wanted to go into the theater... I wanted to act.
I'm from the theater. I never wanted to be a star.
I don't think I've ever seen him in a movie theater! I've only seen him on TV. Wow, that's so silly of me! We only saw one of his films together, it was with a group of people, and when he kissed Deborah Kerr, I jumped off the couch and I ran up and I slapped the screen. I was so upset that my father was kissing this woman I didn't even know!
When I was on Broadway when I was little, I remember always driving through Times Square with my dad to the theater. Now when I go back, you can't even drive on Broadway in the 40s. New Times Square is too touristy to me.
For a lot of people, film is still the dream - the captive audience in the darkened theater - but I love TV. I think it's fantastic.
I'll eventually go back to theater because the feeling of being on stage where you have the audience right there, you can't replace that with anything.
Fundamentally, one of the things I tend to migrate toward when I'm working is a story about people whose stories aren't told in theater.
The wonderful thing about Food for Thought is that it lets you keep your hand in theater and be in front of a live audience without a commitment of six months, or even three months.
I had a brief theater background and loved the backstage world there's more backstage work in television, so I saw a job advertised and applied, and got it. That was back in 1977, when getting jobs was easy.
I like to do theater and hopefully be effective. Most actors, at least contemporary actors of my generation, can't do it. They don't have the chops.
I had been a kid that moved so much, I didn't have a lot of friends. Theater really represented camaraderie.
When it came time to go to university, I wanted to study cinema studies and theater and not necessarily do a fine arts degree.
'CSI's been a great blessing for me. It's been a platform that's allowed me to go around the country and the world, really, and speak on issues of disability, but I've never - I'm a professional actor, so I studied for years; I do theater. I never want to disrespect what got me here.
I think theater and church are so relatable because it's traditional call-and-response in the way that an audience interacts with the actors.
I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use more style in theater than in film roles. I love to sink my teeth into a part.
All four of the actors in 'You're the Worst,' we all have strong theater backgrounds. We all play off of each other in that way that you would in theater. You kind of are up for anything out of the blue happening and getting it on film, you know? We're all just open to playing.
God comes to us in theater in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity.
