Claire Danes Quotes

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 know what I love about acting - and it's the creative process.

Once you are in the character, you should let your inner actor take over you.

Acting has always been something I've wanted to get into. I think the best models are actors; you're taking on a character. In that sense, I have been acting for a long time. It didn't seem like a crazy transition.

I just love to act. I like to get away, totally play a different character, someone you can get really involved in knowing. I've gotten really involved in some characters and written down little summaries of where they live and what their families are like.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'

All the things you can do to prepare for a role that free you, in the moment, are great. You have this muscle memory for things. You don't have to act it as much, once you've done it enough.

As an actress, you have to give your character a life, a history, and make it full and rich for yourself.

I think one of the mistakes actors make is we're so focused on what we're going to say.

When you are portraying somebody that has a very specific emotional weight, you feel like you're really starting to abandon your own body and go to someplace else.

If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it.

I have to do some mental gymnastics as an actor sometimes, to remember not to let certain things in.

Ultimately, we're actors: I'm putting on a costume, so we're playing pretend.

I think the two main tools actors have are the imagination of what other people have gone through, to connect with and through research, and there's one's own experience.

When I'm given a role, I'm consumed by a passion to bring to life a character that exists only on paper. I mull over the character for days and internalise his feelings.

As an actor, it's your job to switch on and off from the character.

I'm certainly not one of those actors who remain in a dark place the entire time in order to be doing the scene. I sort of come in and out of it. It can be to the detriment of my performance sometimes!

Acting is the ability to dream on cue.

An actor is an impersonator; he plays many different roles. If you played the same role all the time, God - that'd be a boring career. When you take on different roles and become a different person, that's called acting... It's a challenge.

I am so used to being up on stage and talking to my fans that it's strange to be on stage and be someone else. I can't look at the audience during 'In the Heights' or I will start talking to them.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

I love acting. It's the one job I know of where you can go in, go through complete catharsis - emotionally, physically sometimes and mentally - and at the end of the day say, 'See you in the pub, guys.'

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

All good actors are unpredictable, and a little crazy in a good way, because they feel more secure playing other people than themselves.