Jay Ellis Quotes

Well, first of all, you read the script a million times. Because what the script gives you are given circumstances. Given circumstances are all the facts of your character.

'Longmire' is more of a show about the characters, and you couldn't pay a bigger compliment than to want to know more about my character, or the characters on the show.

My preparation is mainly just knowing the lines and getting in and knowing where your character is, knowing what it's about and having ideas that you can put in on the day.

I think it's important that a director be able to know his characters inside and out.

You try to get to know your character as best as you can before you start filming - what's written and not written.

Don't start writing your novel until you know your characters very, very well. What they'd do if they saw somebody shoplifting. What they were like at school. What shoes they wear. Spend days - weeks, months - being them until they thicken up and start to breathe.

I try to begin with a strong grasp of my characters. Even if it's schematic, I need it clear in my head who these people are.

My favorite part about working in theater is the rehearsal process. I absolutely love the rehearsal process. Working out the characters, figuring the character out, and the relationships between the different characters. I love all of that, which, unfortunately in film, you get very little opportunity to have.

I always find that really interesting, you know, when I get to see characters that I love in TV and film and theater around their family.

I have a journal, and every character that I play, I write as the character: how I feel about things and how I'm going to play it.

I generally don't feel the need to do more research than is necessary to play the part for me, to inform me.

I honestly feel it is important for a director to get obsessed with the characters.

I think you've got to understand your character and where they're coming from.

In 'Poster Boys,' every character is well defined.

Great novels have great characterization no matter what. But multiple points of view let me examine characters from entirely different perspectives, allowing me to learn more about everyone in the process.

In a novel, it's hard to keep track of everybody.

I don't know quite how a story develops in my head. It is a bit chaotic. If I am working on a series, one of the main characters at least is already in existence as well as some setting and minor characters. Finding the other main character can be a challenge. Sometimes this character already exists in a minor role in another book.

As actors, you don't actually need to know the future of the character. You just need to know the backgrounds.

All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that's what we call 'the plot'.

Sometimes the director will want you to write about the character, sometimes he'll want you to live in the location that the character is from or something like that, but I don't usually make a lot of notes or anything like that.

I like taking a character at the most intense moments of their lives and exploring all that in full and then moving on.

You can really help support a character if you understand the setting. So for that reason I generally write about Philadelphia.

I live intimately with my characters before starting a book. I cut out pictures of them for my wall. I do time lines for each major character and a time line for the entire novel: What is going on in the world as my characters struggle with their problems?

I know all actors are different, but I've never sat down and asked the writers, 'Where are we headed? Am I good or bad?'

Normally when I'm sent a script I'll read it through to see how it hangs as a story and then I'll go back and read it through again and look at the character.