Don Scardino Quotes

As actors, we exhaust ourselves emotionally and physically, which no one sees.

I think doing dramas kind of wears on you. It's just intense.

I think I understand why most actors and actresses are insane, because having to go through an emotional roller coaster as your job every day of your life would make somebody absolutely loopy.

I love to take actors to a place where they open a vein. That's the job. The key is that I make it safe for them to open the vein.

People don't know this, but I'm going through a lot every time I walk on stage, which is part of doing theater. That's why it's so addictive, I must say.

Many times I've sat with a camera and another actor and seen all their fears and insecurities and struggles. You want to support them and help them as much as you can.

I found acting tough; it takes a lot out of you if you have no technique.

Acting can truly take a toll on your nerves. I mean, we have to be larger than life. Worse, I've seen actors acting off the sets, too.

It's funny because, if you're not an actor, people always tend to say, 'How do you memorize all those lines? Is that really hard?' I'm always like, 'That's just a small part of it. I have to seek my craft and my emotions' - you know, all this gross, actor-y stuff.

I'd love to be one of those guys who could be like, 'Yeah, it's really exhausting,' but the truth is I'm not method. I don't take roles home.

I'm affected by the characters I play, and sometimes they're hard to live with.

I get very irate with actors when they talk about how distressing it all is. I mean, it's only acting. Please.

I've had scenes where I had to cry, and by the time I've cried for the 20th time, I'm exhausted.

It's not a pleasure torturing actors, although some of them enjoy it.

It's hard to get lost in a scene, to get into a character when everyone's standing around you on the set.

As actors, we're always asked to portray and react to these extreme circumstances, otherwise it's not interesting. They are agonizing things to think about.

The hardest part of acting is not when I'm acting, It's when I'm not.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers.

In my career, there have been three things that were challenging: playing gay; playing a Jewish woman; and playing Chekhov. The scariest part was playing Chekhov!

As an actor, you're naked emotionally; you're revealing yourself emotionally.

When you have to get into the character each morning, give it your voice, your face, it was torture.

I feel that one of the hardest things in acting is the way you need to switch your emotions.

I did 'Shameless' on Showtime, and I felt like I really tried to go super-method with that, and it would just make my days really hard to get in and out of character.

Acting is very sacred. Anyone who stands in front of a crew with the camera recording their emotions is a brave individual.

To play these twisted, tormented characters is very draining. You have to sit in the pocket of that character for the duration of the shoot, which is normally an average of three months, and that can be taxing!