Viola Davis Quotes

Portraying emotionally ill characters gives me the chance to really act.

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.

It's good for actors to confront those things we have to act: panic, pain and death.

With 'Richard,' I was excited to make this film with such an amazing role for an actor. Play a wide range of emotion and really invest myself in the character.

I have just gained a deeper and deeper respect for acting and the whole art of it because you're really trying to live a life and to do the best justification for it.

Originally, I thought, 'Gollum's such a fantastic character, why are you doing him CG? Surely you need to be able to humanise him as much as possible - he's so full of pathos and real emotion.'

The thing about being an actor is that as we get older, there are more and more characters to explore and, in general, they get more complicated, so you get to bring all your crazy life experience to the table.

I don't mind a little Sturm und Drang. When I was doing 'Riding in Cars With Boys,' I wouldn't smile at anybody, because my character, Bev, was angry at the world. I'm the opposite. Inside my head I'd be like, God, I'll explain to you at the end of shooting that I'm not this person.

Every time you play a bad girl or guy in a movie, you really come from a place of pain.

I'm drawn to the romantic aspect of a character. It's human emotion. It's much more fun to watch. And it's much more fun to play.

When you're performing, you're playing to the back row. With acting, you have to be more nuanced.

Character and emotionality don't always have to be relegated to quieter, more simple constructs.

The one thing I learned the most about acting is it takes a tremendous amount of courage to go there and stand still. It takes courage and guts to step out of your mind frame and depict something.

It's easier to play aggression and malevolence onscreen, often, than to hit softer notes.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

I love the simplicity of Kevin Spacey's work. He really does a subtle interpretation of every character, and that's kind of my style of acting when it comes to dramatic roles.

I always find it easier to portray myself as being unlikeable and idiotic; to actually play a character that is likeable and engages the audience is far more difficult. It's a more subtle kind of challenge.

I went through this realization that acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions.

That's what acting is - it's about... having the courage to allow your audience into the private moments of your characters' lives.

Acting is different from stand-up. It gives you this ability to enter into another character, to create another person.

It's a fine line. If you withhold too much, you come across as wooden - as I've often been described in some movies. Fair enough. I believe that the best performances are the ones that an audience has to search for.

I don't think you can play a villain with a negative point of view.

Acting is not just impersonating your character.

There's a reason why I do anxious characters - it comes from a lot of personal anxiety. The great thing is, having that history, it's really fun to bring that into the characters... and play with it.

My character in 'Hollyoaks' went through absolutely everything! There's not one emotion where I'm going to go, 'I don't know how to play this.'