Paul Orndorff Quotes

I get very involved in my roles. I want people to think it's all really happening. If I'm in it, I'm in it.

To try and sustain a performance is always a challenge. Anything you work on, to try and be real and show up and not look as if I'm playing pat to anything is always work.

I always want to be as good in the part as I possibly can. But I make no pretensions of being the greatest actor in the world.

I don't do all of this as an indulgence. I do it because I'm not a good enough actor to not do it.

I'm the kind of person who if I was playing the role of someone who got shot, I'd probably want to get shot so I knew what it felt like.

I'm challenged by people like Russell Crowe and Sean Penn who come in with such incredible discipline and power.

You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do. You want to be focused on it.

I take my fun very seriously, whether it's playing the drums or acting in comedy bits. The need to be disciplined about it, and not take it lightly, and not be too casual, is something I take deeply to heart.

Practice makes perfect and if you practice battling and competing and working hard, then that will transfer over in a game. If you practice just kind of floating around out there in practice, you know that's going to transfer over, too. So I think the harder you work and the more you compete, then that's how you're going to play in a game.

Nothing comes easy when I'm in character, because everything I do in character, I take seriously.

The fight in theatre is focus, focus, focus.

I guess you should approach the roles differently when they're actual people who have been, this is the difference. Getting the accent exact, or the hair exact is less important in a situation like this.

I admire Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman for their sheer dedication to their craft.

Meisner technique was different than anything I'd ever experienced. It's a really great way to be accountable to your craft and to yourself, but also it takes that kind of focus and dedication to learn anything.

I was surprised at the level of commitment that Andrew Lincoln has. The extreme situations that he's asked to perform - that's got to be seriously draining, and he keeps going and going. He's almost not human.

You can't act being a boxer. It's like being on stage.

If I'm going to do something, I'm going to spend however long it takes to get it right.

I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that.

Debra Winger doesn't let anything interfere with her performance, which is the way it should be.

I would take plays and I would cut out all the other dialogue and make long monologues because I felt the other kids weren't taking it as seriously as I did.

When it's time to film and to actually take on the role of Precious, I felt an immense responsibility to do it justice.

That's the thing about acting - you can't fake it.

When I'm working, I don't wake up and say, 'OK, time to go be intense.' I just look at whatever scenes we're working on that day and break them down - just real intense everyday work.

I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals.

I hit the ground running, without a lot of training, so I had to do whatever I could do to survive as a professional, and if that meant being that character 24/7 and acting out, I was going to do that. I lived those characters, I brought them home with me.