Douglas Hodge Quotes

Sometimes you read things that people don't even notice in a performance, that you just are moved by or understand that this actor is really living his or her life on the screen. The first time I realized that was when I watched Brando in 'On the Waterfront.'

In acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

As an actor, you work to the script: that's our main priority. But you have to be aware and look around for things that help you bring that little bit extra, that touch of realism that rams the point home.

Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment.

All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.

Your job as an actor is to piece together whatever you've learned in your training, or whatever you have experienced in your life, to piece together a person.

As an actor, you can't just imitate someone. You have to get under her skin.

I like method actors who don't focus on the glamorous side, but on realistic acting.

You're always trying to find common ground with whatever you do, but you want to not be thinking about yourself when you're performing a play. The job is getting yourself out of the way and letting the character go about the scenes.

It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.

As an actor, you try to bring as much of yourself to a part to try and create a feeling of authenticity and emotional truth and resonance.

That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

I try to steal from the best. Suck it all in. 'Taxi Driver' is really a bible for film actors, a master class. A lot of emotional power, a lot of emotional depth but it's contained and you just see the tip of the iceberg.

When you drop your guard in films, the acting process compensates. You get lazy and you start acting.

When you are developing a character you have to bring so much of yourself to the role.

Movie acting is primarily listening. If you're really engaged, that's all a movie audience wants to see is you processing what's happening in your world.

The big difference with Juliette and the others in that film is that she goes beyond acting.

As an actor, what you dream of is being able to portray people that people empathize with and understand and really feel for.

A lot of actors and actresses pull from past experiences.

Whether it's a very dramatic part or a comical role, I feel I need to create the same thing: a full-fledged, three-dimensional character that the audience can identify with.

Being a good actor is sort of understanding the complexity of the human psyche and also knowing that we are none of us perfect.

Most actors will tell you this - I don't really know how to connect, empathize with, or make worthy of any revelation a character that doesn't have love in there somewhere, that doesn't have an idealism or an empathy in there somewhere.

Once you're playing someone, you shouldn't be judging them in any way. That's what being an actor is - it's having empathy for people that are different from yourself. Once you've committed to that person, your responsibility is to tell that story.

I think I'm sort of method in a sense, and I enjoy, you know, trying to find that reality in fake emotion.