Naseeruddin Shah Quotes

An emotional performance is usually more instinctive to an actor.

Nobody is more truthful when he's acting than De Niro.

It's true I have a hard time with the notion of creating a character. And I feel it's a limit. I'm always really impressed by actors who are able to construct a character, like Johnny Depp.

When I talk about character work, I don't really feel like i do much as an actor when I look at other great actors who win big awards for doing incredible transformations.

In terms of pure acting, my role model has always been Philip Seymour Hoffman; I really always loved what he did. I love what Mark Ruffalo does. When I was younger, I liked Cate Blanchett a lot. These are all actors who are given stories and allowed to carry the whole story.

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.

I was blown away watching Michael Keaton act because he was such a maniacal, evil person on set. He takes on a totally different life, and it was so amazing to watch him work.

I think an actor without life experiences is empty.

The worst acting is about imitation.

Actors walk around wearing these little tool-belts of acting skills. And I just don't find that interesting to watch. I never want to see someone who clearly can cry at the drop of a hat. That's so uninteresting.

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

A really great actor, in a lucky performance, can transform himself or herself. I've seen actors do that. But often it's a mechanical transformation, which isn't as interesting, and you've got to be careful how you go about something like that, I think.

Any good actor is a character actor.

In acting, you draw so much on your private life.

I think good acting is always character acting.

It's easier to see in someone else, another actor, how they kind of disappear and then this other persona appears. A great actor is a thing of mystery.

Well my taste wasn't very good when I first started out. But later, when I began to appreciate the art of acting, I would say the actress I most admire is Vanessa Redgrave.

Sometimes fake laughing is hard once you've done a scene 18 times. I don't want to brag, but I have a reputation for being very, very good at that. It's funny finding what's challenging about acting as you go.

There are actors who are really fantastically talented at being natural on screen and appearing to be themselves, but I like the challenge of becoming somebody else.

Bad actors try to cry, and good actors try not to. Bad actors try to laugh, and good actors try not to.

When you see my performances, even people that you might have known, like Nicky Barnes in 'American Gangster,' you have to get over the fact that I look like Cuba Gooding, Jr. But once you find truth in the performance, if I'm doing my job right, you believe everything.

Most people when they see me cry for a shot, say, 'Wow, what a natural!' But I actually do cry and break down.

The better the actor I am acting with, the better my performance gets.

It's a wonderful thing to watch an actor just act.

When an actor sings a song, he will be able to bring forth the emotion in it much better than a playback singer.