Jimmy Stewart Quotes

The first time I ever screamed at someone was in a scene, and I'd never screamed at someone in my life.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III - that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it - they have all the fun!

I did my first Broadway play, 'The Vertical Hour,' in 2006, with Julianne Moore, who's always been one of my favorite actresses. My scene was with her, so it was nerve-racking.

My middle daughter is with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was on Broadway several years ago.

Acting has always been something I've wanted to get into. I think the best models are actors; you're taking on a character. In that sense, I have been acting for a long time. It didn't seem like a crazy transition.

When I was doing 'All in the Family,' half the time, I was looking at where the cameras were, where were the other actors in the scene, what the audience was doing.

I did one of the 'Amazing Stories.' That was the first time I got to play a character who was a dumb blonde. I actually channeled Judy Holliday.

If I was on Broadway, I would want to do anything Vaudeville or a biopic.

The first time I played a killer, in the 1997 film 'Mojo,' I went to my local video shop and got out a video of real executions and a history of the Third Reich. The guy in the shop was giving me a look. I thought this would help, but I don't think it made any difference, and I don't want to see any more executions.

The trick to acting is not to show off; it's to think the thoughts of the character. I was lucky because when I started acting, it was doing jobs above pubs. I learned to act in anonymity, so by the time people saw me, I knew what I was doing. I was crap for years, but no one saw me being crap. It's a trade you learn.

I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters.

Ive done Hay Fever and this one was called Another Time by Ronald Harwood.

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.

Every time somebody would ask me what I want to be when I grow up, I would always say, 'I want to be on Broadway!'

I was spooked when I first got the role, as I was afraid I wouldn't have the companionship I need on a shoot, because I'm so into the process itself, not so much the end product.

I've been on projects before where there's no rehearsal, and you walk in on set and that's literally the first time you've ever played the character, and then I've had times where there's been three weeks of rehearsal. I like both.

When you're doing a show like 'The Book of Mormon,' you're completely spent by the time the show is over.

I have played a few lay saints in my time.

The interesting thing about doing a play is to find a way to make it fresh and do it as though you were doing it for the first time.

In England, when we're at drama school, we spend a lot of time learning the craft from playwrights and stage actors, who are very well trained in the basics of acting because they need to get it right the first time - you can't have second or third takes when you're in front of a live audience, unlike in film.

Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

Sometimes you go into a film and you have no time to prepare and have to compress the details into a few days and then rely on the instinct and what happens when you're in a scene with other actors and that chemistry or not.

I figured as I got older, the good roles for women would be in the theatre. So 15 years ago I started building a Broadway career to try and develop the chops to be accepted as a great theatrical actress.

'The Taming Of The Shrew' is probably the first time I've worked in this country for about ten years, apart from theatre, and it's not for want of trying. It was so fantastic to work in London - it felt really glamorous.

I'd always dabbled in acting.