Willem Dafoe Quotes

I don't believe actors who say they don't bleed into their characters. It's absolutely impossible not to.

I immerse myself right into my character whether or not I'm relating to people live as an actor on stage or whatever.

Gary Ross one of those directors which lets you do what you need to do to become your character - he lets you try to do everything on your own when you're acting. Then at some points he would say, "Let's try this," or "Let's try that." Most of the time he just kind of let me try to just become my character on my own and it worked out really well.

When you're playing a character, you don't really want to have an opinion about where you're going to end up. Otherwise, you can't really stay in the moment and in your character.

When I work, I really try to get absorbed in the character. Unless I want to do something playful with the camera, I'm not too worried about where the camera is or positions.

I don't act in the way other actresses act, in terms of building or creating a character. I don't transform myself into the role, I invest myself in the role.

I'm not the kind of actor that can go completely cold into an emotional scene. I have to transport myself emotionally by whatever means possible, and that basically means you carry the situation with you all week, all episode or all day beforehand.

With films, you completely immerse yourself in a character, get into who they are, live it and then release it.

I have to believe in the character to perform it.

When I'm acting, I've always got to make it make sense to me why I do anything. Whether it's right or wrong, I've just got to believe this is the reason why I am doing this and just go with it.

I always felt the play came first. If it didn't touch me, I'd say forget the part.

I find that I kind of have to sink into the character.

I think that's how any actor would make their performance convincing: by bringing an element of themselves into the character.

I am not much of a trained actor. I have to get my brain and heart to go deep inside the situation, and then, probably, I can start acting. It takes me a little while to get out of it.

When I'm playing any of my characters, I totally go into the realm of the character. That's when I'm able to come up with the most creative stuff, and I believe that's what connects with the audience.

As actors, we have to take characters, and we have to feel for them and ultimately become them, and share that on screen so that audience feels that.

I believe in the fact that to portray a character convincingly, you need to live that character, own that character. You have to be earnest with every line that you deliver. However, it doesn't mean that you have to cut off your true self.

I don't try to intellectualize characters too much. But I always think of the audience. I always make sure that my characters are likeable.

What I didn't realize about television was that's true of acting, as well. You have that space of time to develop who you are, and you can use more and more of yourself. The lines between that character that I'm playing and myself become more and more blurred and, after awhile, they just disappear, altogether.

I'm an actor. I'm trying to be the character and do what they're doing.

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.

I never like to go out of character when filming starts. I fear that if I do, I might not be able to pick it up again.

I know there are a lot of people who like to get very involved in their characters, but I, personally, find it too involved. I just like to do it as a job - and it's my job to make it look real.

I'm sure there's pieces of me in all the characters I play.

I didn't play the Ghost Rider in the first movie. That was a stuntman. In this film, the Ghost Rider feels much more alive because I did put some thought into how he should walk and into how he should move. I was so into the character, in fact, that I would paint my face with white and black makeup to look like a skull. And I put on blacked-out contact lenses, so I almost looked like an Afro-New Orleanian voodoo icon by the name of Baron Samedi. Oh man, I would walk around the set without saying a word to anybody, and I could see the fear in my co-stars' and co-directors' eyes.