Colin Firth Quotes

I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It's about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.

The kind of acting I love is when you watch and you discover what you think perhaps you weren't supposed to see: the chink in the armor.

I like actors who, when you see them on screen, you sense a person, not just an actor.

If you do too much acting in a lead part in a feature film where you're 40 ft. high, it's rather unattractive. You can see the acting. And it's actually the right thing to do to bring as much of yourself, I believe, to the part as you possibly can - to minimize the amount of theatrical stuff that you need to do.

Fiction, at its best, is a radical act of intimacy. It seeks to join, to merge, to know deeply; and, as with intimacy, there is a way in which it cannot be faked.

I don't really consider myself to be an actor of any particular style. My aim with every role I undertake is to be truthful and honest in that particular portrayal. I don't have a particular methodology from any one school of thought or training.

I actually love actresses who look like they feel really natural. I like Patricia Clarkson, Laura Linney, Frances McDormand. Those are actresses where the second they show up on screen you're like, oh my gosh, this movie just got so much better.

I love the powerful woman who's complicated. There's no push to be one thing or another thing. It's all human. That's what you look for as an actor: characters written and portrayed in the most human way possible.

Hopefully, any character I play has an anchor in reality.

I can't just say the words, do a lot of one-liners. I love each person I play; I have to be that person. I have to do him true.

I tend to play more true-to-life characters in real situations.

I think that's what distinguishes Schmidt, really. In the movies now, so much of what is appealing to an audience is the dramatic or has to do with science fiction, and Schmidt is simply human. There's no melodrama; there's no device, It's just about a human being.

I'd love to tell actors about all the things they don't need to worry about. Less is more. If you have it inside, you don't need to show too much. People pick up on things.

As an actor, you work to the script: that's our main priority. But you have to be aware and look around for things that help you bring that little bit extra, that touch of realism that rams the point home.

When you play characters, you shouldn't just be putting on their characteristics - you should be finding it inside yourself.

I like method actors who don't focus on the glamorous side, but on realistic acting.

Even great actors who transform who they are still go to a really honest place; I think that's sort of that special skill that actors have.

You can't just skim the surface of any role. You have to find the depths, because any other way would be dishonest.

Although I would like the negative balanced with the positive, what really bothers me is if it's not real. You can add humanity to what might look like a negative role.

I think I take away a naturalistic approach to acting from doing 'The Larry Sanders Show,' a way to put aside acting and just exist in the world of what's being handed to me.

Feeling and reacting has more impact than just trying to emote what your character's saying.

I love the way Damon Lindelof writes. It's almost like he was channeling me and he had my voice, even though the territory that those lines cover is unpredictable, and goes from raw emotion to laugh out loud funny but always true.

I am not one of those actors who dwells on the histrionics and the subtext and future text of the character. I deal with the scenes that I'm doing at that specific time, because if I do that, they play in more of a real way.

I think one of my big skills is making unlikable characters likable or real in some way. No matter how hateful people are, there's always something vulnerable about them, or something that you can understand or relate to. I think that's my job as an actress - to find those.

Comedy and drama are different sides of the same coin. And the thing about comedy and drama is about likability. It's about character first. It's about story. And for me, it's about empathy, and I think the realer someone is, the further you can go either way with them.