Emily Mortimer Quotes

An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.

As an actor, you put yourself out there. You put yourself in the arena as an easy target.

Acting is an uncomfortable business because you have to make yourself vulnerable.

A voice is very intimate. It's something of your own. So there's always this fear, because you feel naked. There's a fear of not reaching up to expectations. As you become more famous, people come and expect to hear something extraordinary, so you don't want to disappoint them. I feel this sense of responsibility.

I have to expose myself and then accept the judgment that audiences and critics will have. And that's okay. I appreciate the elliptical nature of it. Sometimes people are more in the mood to be nice to me than others, and that's great.

I don't know what else you could do that is more vulnerable - maybe dancing - than singing.

As an actor, we have to be so vulnerable that it's really hard to involve yourself with the other aspects of filmmaking.

There's something so naked about being on stage as a musician. I think about that even with standup comedy or something - like, 'This is it, this is what I got.'

I did musicals. It's funny, because I can hide behind a character and a voice, but when I have to bring myself and my own voice to it, it's very nerve-wracking.

Staging any play is very exposing because, if you are going to do it well, you have to put so much of yourself into it.

Obviously when I'm put in a situation where there is a lot of attention on me, it's this weird dichotomy - I like it, because I feel like I'm a natural born performer. But I do feel the most vulnerable.

I wouldn't want to try to make a living as an actor. I think actors... I give them a lot of credit for what they go through, but putting myself on the line like that would make me crazy.

Comedy is frightening at first because you're opening yourself up. When it's just you and people hate it, you're like, "Oh God. Do they hate me?"

I was terrorized by the emotional requirements of being an actor. Acting is like letting your pants down; you're exposed.

I always sort of create practical problems so that I don't have to see a film I've just done. I'm too vulnerable, too fragile. People see your work, and there's nothing you can do. You're completely exposed.

I think a lot of actors need validation. If you see truly amazing actors perform, they expose themselves to such an incredible degree. You can really see their pain.

All of the press and stuff - that's the scary stuff. The acting is what I got trained to do.

When I show a film at a festival, I am showing myself. Everything is at stake for me.

I've got to be right on top of the action, or else all those people watching the game will say, 'This guy's not very good.'

You're here to sweat. This program is live. There's about one thousand million people watching you. So, you remember - one wrong word, one foolish gesture and your whole career could go down in flames. Hold that thought and have a nice night.

And I'm OK being judged as an actor.

Acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people.

I can't become another person, no matter how much makeup I wear. Something of your own past, your experiences and personality always comes out in the role, and that makes acting very risky. You're exposed. You always wonder if you can pull it off.

When you mess up publicly, it can be difficult to get vulnerable again or to put yourself out there.

Singing, to me, just feels really vulnerable.