Acting Instincts Quotes

Even when I'm reading a script where I'm supposed to be looking at the lead role, I'll find myself gravitating toward some small weirdo in a few scenes instead. I'm very instinctive like that and I love the challenge of not having a lot of time to create someone who feels real.

I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don't be afraid to do what your instincts tell you. You may not get the part, but people will take notice.

Meryl Streep's brilliant, just brilliant. I've been fortunate to do two movies with Meryl. And for an actor to go moment to moment like she does, there's no one better. And she dances between moments. Each take is different because she's riding instincts, she's riding impulses. And she trusts that.

I used to joke I was a point-and-click actor. My whole process has been about trusting your instincts and hitting your mark.

I definitely believe in the energy of the set and the energy of the actor, way more than your written word.

It doesn't matter what you feel - ultimately, it's what the audience feels. You can finish a scene and think to yourself, 'Oh, God. I was so deep in that moment,' and find it just didn't play. I don't know if I have very good radar about that or not.

That's what sets apart one actor from another, and that you can't teach. You can't give someone that. When you're working, putting a character together, or in a scene, that's where things will happen that you have to have the intuition to notice them, and to register them.

I think it's a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.

You can't be bad when you're working with a kid. They have the instincts that all great actors have.

As an actor, you can think your way out of a lot of good things sometimes. I trust my instincts as an actor, and I trust the instincts of the creators, so it's a good combination.

It's obvious that I must explain what I want from an actor, but I don't want to discuss everything I ask him to do, because often my requests are completely instinctive and there are things I can't explain. It's like painting: You don't know why you use pink instead of blue. You simply feel that's how it should be - pink. Then the phone rings and you answer it. When you come back, you don't want pink anymore and you use blue - without knowing why. You can't help it; that's just the way it is.

A ham is simply any actor who has not been successful in repressing his natural instincts.

I still had the same frustration with trying to play [Edward Cullen], the entire way through, right up until the last shot. It's a strange part because, on the one hand, a lot of the audience projects their idea of Edward[Cullen] onto him. It doesn't matter what he is. They want him to be a certain way. And then, my instincts were to try and play it and to try to find the fallibility in him and the weaknesses.

An emotional performance is usually more instinctive to an actor.

I don't really overthink my characters. The camera comes on, and I am on.

I'm very aware that when one is acting in the theater, you do become kind of animal about it. And you're reliant on instincts rather than tact a lot of the time.

Ah, nuts. I'm an actor. I just do what comes naturally.

I don't think talent or an instinct for acting is something you can teach.

I wish I could describe anything I do as conscious or strategized. To be honest, in acting, you have so little control. The only control you have is if you're lucky enough to be in a position, which is not very often, in which you have choice. It's about what choices you make, and for me, it's entirely instinctive.

As an actor, I've been taught to just stay with your scene partner, and whatever they do, let it affect you, be spontaneous.

If you get an impulse in a scene, no matter how wrong it seems, follow the impulse. It might be something and if it ain't - take two!

The actress (Heidi Swedberg) is this wonderful girl, and ... I love her! i couldn't figure out how to play off of her. Her instincts for doing a scene - where the comedy was - and mine were always misfiring.