Sarah Lancashire Quotes

But it's mostly about pacing yourself when you do these movies.

When you're younger, the mental strain of being a successful actor, jumping from role to role, and trying to have some kind of personal life, can really be terrible.

I've gotten pretty good at leaving characters on the set. I go home and try to relax and regroup and be ready for the next day.

I have a very healthy relationship to my work, and I find that if a scene is working, no matter how intense it is, you have the catharsis on screen, and you can let it go. I think it's, if at the end of the day you feel like you haven't cracked it, that's when you go home and it's more difficult to switch off.

When it's a really dark emotional scene, you have to make the effort to shake it off, at the end of the day, before you go home to your kids and try to be a normal human being. You definitely want to make that effort to shake it off.

I think I understand why most actors and actresses are insane, because having to go through an emotional roller coaster as your job every day of your life would make somebody absolutely loopy.

As an actor, you're never supposed to complain about being too busy because it can go the other way real fast.

I get really manic on set, and then to just get myself to a place where I'm alone in my apartment again, it's like this recalibrating thing that happens.

I tell my staff, 'Give me your best, and then go home and live your life.' I've never asked anyone to work harder, but I've told plenty that they needed rest.

I learned how to turn it on and turn it off. You learn that in theater, too, but for film work, I learned from doing 'Henry,' I learned how to leave work at work and go home. There's always spillover. Actors speak of this.

Acting is a tough business, and you need to be in good shape mentally and physically.

De Niro was a hero of mine. And Sean Penn. But I've realized I can't operate at that level of intensity. That's okay for movies. On TV, when you live with horror day in and day out, you have to protect yourself.

I'd like to settle down eventually, but acting is emotionally draining.

The thinnest I've ever been was after I had my appendix out, during the London run of The Seagull. I went down to 112 pounds and realized my brain doesn't work when I'm that thin, so I can't do my job. That's why, when I came out here, I never had that whole Hollywood pressure thing.

Any actor will tell you that you go where the work is, especially when you have children.

My personal life, my normal life, is so important to me. To be able to go back to my personal life and leave characters behind is important; I don't keep them with me.

I have a theory that burnout is about resentment. And you beat it by knowing what it is you're giving up that makes you resentful.

I never understood actors who could just wait around.

Sadly, my hobby is what I do for work, so I don't go off and go fishing. I go home and veg, and then I go back to work.

Balancing school, acting, and a social life can be difficult.

Even though my work life is very intense, I make a conscious effort to be healthy.

Growing up in a family of actors, what's great about it is that they're very supportive and they understand what it's like to be an actor - the rejections, the highs and lows... and having a common language with them is great because you have shorthand speech.

For a long time, I'd work until 10 or 11. When I work, I'm on. I'm 'Magic.' I love it, but it takes a lot out of me.

For me it would be unhealthy to be a method actor; I'm not mentally stable enough for that - I need to separate my two worlds.

I'm a stand-up. I'm never worried about getting my next role. That's never distressing to me.