Taissa Farmiga Quotes

When I did 'Racing Demon' by David Hare, I worked with Paul Giamatti, who had stacks of books in his dressing room. I was offstage a lot, so I would go read in his room. He was reading a four-part series on the Byzantine Empire by Alexander A. Vasiliev. I read two of those during the run of the play.

It's important to do research. I do that in every play, every actor does.

As an actor, you have to have your history.

I really didn't know much about theater. After I signed on, I started reading a lot of Sam Shepard plays just to brush up on my history and do some research.

David Tennant is a massive fan, and grew up dreaming he would be the Doctor Who one day. So I did feel, when I first got the job, "Right, now I've got to do loads of research into absolutely everything Doctor Who." But that's not possible to do in a short space of time. So my knowledge has been growing and developing as I've been doing it, and that's been fine. That's been appreciated by the fans, and the executives never expect me to be brushed up on absolutely everything.

I had a friend who was the King's surgeon in England. One day I asked him what makes a great surgeon. He replied, "What distinguishes a great surgeon is his knowledge. He knows more than other surgeons. During an operation he finds something which he wasn't expecting, recognizes it and knows what to do about it." It's the same thing with advertising people. The good ones know more. How do you get to know more? By reading books about advertising. By picking the brains of people who know more than you do. From the Magic Lanterns. And from experience.

Memorizing dialogue has always come easy and quickly to me. My wife Eileen is also very helpful. She gives me choices, and asks me questions, and runs my lines with me.

I did comedies for 10 years and I learned a great deal.

I just did a play in New York which has been my best experience that I've had for maybe ever. It was Paul Weitz's play called Privilege and I was in New York for three months.

I've been reading a lot of books on history, and watching a lot of educational TV. Wikipedia too, even though it is not reliable.

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.

I think theater is a great training ground; I think it's a great opportunity to play.

While I was growing up all over, in all my different schools, I was always doing theater, auditioning for plays.

Drama read to oneself is never drama at its best, and is not even drama as it should be.

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.

My whole life, I had been taught to read and study, to seek understanding in knowledge of history, of cultures.

I think you start to prepare the minute you read something.

When I did Inherit the Wind, I learned about teaching school. I also found out what a fundamentalist was.

I think you always learn something in every character you play onstage, either personally or creatively.

Nathan Lane always wanted to play Oscar. When he came in the first day, he already knew his lines. He said he'd known them since he was 18.

You're not going to learn about acting on TV and in film. You'll learn more in plays and in class.

I'm dying to do a Sam Shepard play. 'Curse of the Starving Class,' 'Buried Child,' 'True West,' 'Cowboy Mouth,' 'Fool for Love' - I'll do any of them.

I played a doctor on 'Counterpart', so that was about studying and watching documentaries and reading and trying to learn.

I've done two 'Hamlets,' two 'Lears,' three 'Midsummer Night's Dreams' - I've done most of these plays more than once, and every time I direct them, I learn things.

I know that I want to consistently return to doing plays. That's one of the most important things because I think it's the best place for me to learn how to act.