Peter Sellers Quotes

I've been on investigations where a spirit is channeling through me, and I have extreme changes in my emotions - anger, sadness, confusion. Then I begin seeing visions that are not mine. They are theirs. There is no trace of time. My body goes stiff, numb, cold. Then, when the spirit leaves, I can barely stand and speak.

That's my way in the very beginning - how to enter it [a role]. Very quickly in the process, I don't think about voice being separate from the way you hold your head or the way you sit or the way you put on lipstick. It's all a piece of a person, and it's all driven by conviction.

It kind of varies. I don’t have a method yet. It depends on the script and the character I think I need. I’ve worked with acting coaches, researched roles, and channeled different parts of myself. It’s on a case-by-case for me, right now.

I didn't drop into the mannerisms of another version of the character, but I guess I was pretty alert to that.

I wouldn't say I'm a method actor. I do research when I feel I don't have enough experience for the part I'm playing.

My great-grandfather, Sam Aykroyd, was a dentist in Kingston, Ontario, and he was also an Edwardian spiritualist researcher who was very interested in what was going on in the invisible world, the survival of the consciousness, precipitated paintings, mediumship, and trans-channeling.

I find that when I play reality-based characters, it is only as fun for me if I have a lot of time to do research. If I don't it just isn't exciting but if I do, it can be fun because I can learn about that person and the world that they live in and I can become somebody else.

I've played American characters so many times now, it's so natural to me. But when I play American, I stay in the American accent from the minute I get the job till the minute I wrap.

When you're shooting you go to references in your mind. You think about how you should stand in these particular clothes, or how you should move. You think about the different characters you're playing, really.

I don't just talk to the dead.

Seances remind me of cabinet meetings. The spirits give conflicting advice.

I tend to - every time I step onto the set until the time I go back to the hotel, I just try to be in character all the time.

I could not be one of those actors who stays in character all day long. I'd go mad.

Whatever headspace you need to live in for your character is sort of where you stay in between scenes.

You've got to bring yourself to any character you do.

When I'm trying to find my way into a character, the voice and physicality are the first two things I do.

For better or worse, I don't necessarily categorize myself as a method actor; I'm not going to make claims that I stayed in character 24/7.

I think it always helps when you build a character, and then, you actually step into that character's wardrobe, something else happens. Another angle of the character comes to life.

As an actor, if you want to explore something new inside you, you need to do something different that you don't do in your regular life. You need to think in a different way. It is my duty to think like the character that I am given and believe in his mindset; only then I will be able to portray it.

As an actor, I know it is my job to shape myself for a role - any role.

I don't prepare myself for any character unless it is really different.

Acting in an epic and a non-fictional film is a big challenge for actors, as they need to research extensively about the characters they are playing before stepping into their shoes.

When I'm acting, I just come up with people I've known, and I stick with it.

If I am playing a historical character, I try to watch the person in newsreels and read about them, but I will not imitate them.

It's quite a layered character that I portray in 'Jalebi' and I needed to deviate and cut-off completely from the world to get into a different zone as a character. I'm really glad it proved beneficial and worked to my advantage.