Charles Bradley Quotes

I didn't have a particular persona. I'm not Alice Cooper, you know?

If you're going to pretend to be somebody you're not - which is the whole point of being a rock star - then why not just invent fake characters and have them do it all for you?

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.

I think singing and acting go hand in hand. Take an R&B singer: one song says, 'I love you,' the next is, 'Baby, don't leave me', the next is, 'If you leave me I don't care.' You have to drop in and out of different perspectives.

My name is Ella; that's who I am at school, hanging out with friends, while I'm doing homework. But when I'm up on stage, 'Lorde' is a character.

For a lot of actors, there's a sort of code of honor around playing something other than yourself, which I just don't have. I love feeling like I'm - I won't even say acting out, but performing in some deep seam of my consciousness or my family's consciousness or my past. That's really amusing to me.

Some actors say they don't know themselves at all, and that's why they act: because they can disappear into other people.

I never try to create a different personality or anything like that. I'm not like David Bowie or somebody like that, who changes personas each year.

As I say, there's something that scares the hell out of me but it really makes me work hard in losing myself. I'm not really interested in me as an actor or being a personality player, or a Hollywood star. What's given to me is to become different people and to find the truth of that. That is really what I do.

The difference between me as Brian Warner or Marilyn Manson is just words. Same personality, sensibility, sense of humor, behavior. He is me.

'Funny People' is my favorite performance of myself to date. Even though it's a comedy and there are serious moments, I really felt like Leo felt like a real person. It didn't feel like I was playing myself. Whether it's a comedy or drama, I just try to make it as realistic as possible.

Look at Greg Jbara! I've watched him work for years, always switching. He's literally a different human being when he's onstage in 'Billy Elliot.' That's the fun of what we do.

Of course you can find something exciting and dynamic in any character you want to portray.

I'm used to being someone else 10 months out of the year.

The best advice my dad ever gave me is that acting is believing. Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

People say that they like the characters that they believe that I am. But, I don't as much. I like the characters that I believe that I am not. Like my role on 'Law and Order.' That character unnerved people. And I loved every second of it. I want to continue growing as an actress. There are ways that I can reach quicker, or deeper, with acting.

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

One of the things I love about acting is that it reveals a certain something about yourself, but it doesn't reveal your own personal story.

Acting has always been a way for me to express myself, and show all my vulnerabilities and flaws through my characters.

Good actresses can often accomplish miracles, and it is possible to be someone you've never been or will be. But in a sitcom, there's no time.

Before I was known, I would go on stage and pretend I was other people. Once I pretended I was mentally handicapped. It was really wrong. One time I was a bad magician. And one time I pretended I was a Christian comic.

An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.

I just play him as myself, I don't ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me.

I have always like doing accents; I find it much easier to get into character for me.

I'm not running for office. I just want people to come to my stuff and escape and see me as a character, not as anything else.