Sally Hawkins Quotes

For any role, I pretty much always go to the script, first and foremost.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

I'll read a script maybe twice, but I'll think about the role more than I'll rehearse lines.

I always tend to see, right after reading the script, the character and how I want to play it. I guess that's sort of most of the work, preparing for the role, but almost the creation of the character seems to go on as I read through the script.

I demanded two weeks of rehearsal because to me as an actor, that's the most important time.

My process is I try to learn my lines so they're so solid I don't have to think about them or how I'm going to say them.

I don't worry too much about learning lines per se. The memorization is the easy part for me, usually. For me, it's more about working on the context, back story, intention, motivation, etc. Once that's in place, the lines come pretty naturally.

It's part of the actor's job to show up with a head full of steam, to have their own take on this. So that way, you're not relying on, 'OK, tell me how to do it.'

As an actor, I know it is my job to shape myself for a role - any role.

My preparation is mainly just knowing the lines and getting in and knowing where your character is, knowing what it's about and having ideas that you can put in on the day.

For me, I've always been one that reads a script and has been ready, wiling and able to go out and fight for parts.

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

The thing I noticed about Jack was when we did a reading of the script, just to warm up.

What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.

When preparing a role, I work first on the body language and physical aspects of the performance; the psychological dimension comes naturally once I'm in character.

Robert De Niro taught me how to listen, and how to be part of the conversation. It's not just about reading your lines and saying what's in the script; you have to understand your character, along with the other characters so that you can always respond.

I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes. I got my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times. That was my research.

Well, first of all, you read the script a million times. Because what the script gives you are given circumstances. Given circumstances are all the facts of your character.

And that's one thing that helps me is I learn it blandly, vanilla, then I don't try to act it too soon because you start to act it, and you kind of go away from what the next sentence is, what the next paragraph is. So get it down so it kind of can - it's in there so you can then, as I call it, dance on top of it.

I'm not a method actor, but I'm a big research kind of actor.

I figure out who I'm playing opposite, and I really do study them.

Basically, the way you get into any role is just doing research on the type of character you're playing.

I played a lawyer once, and I had about three or four weeks before we shot, so I was able to go to court and watch lawyers at work. Some were good lawyers and some were bad lawyers, but it was essential. The more time you have to prepare, the better. Always.

As an actor, I like to get a bit of momentum going with a character and kind of work a bit quicker. I mean, not crazy-fast, but, you know, five or six pages a day is a nice pace.