Acting Strategy Quotes

Im thinking of going into rehab. Im not addicted to anything, but I think its good way to jumpstart an acting career.

The poor show of a film can be crucial in an actor's career. Maybe that is why some actors choose to act in a lot of films, so as not to be affected by a single hit or a flop.

I never think about the next movie. I always think about the situation I'm in now, but you do think about an arc someone can go. I love Johnny Depp, I love 'Pirates of the Caribbean,' but I never wanted to play the same character over and over again.

I've never thought it was a good idea to act back-to-back.

As an actor, you should always keep your trump card hidden from your audience. I want the audience to keep expecting more and more from me. I want to do 'different' work - good and memorable roles - so that audience appreciate me more. That's why I love to surprise my audience with something they never expect me to do.

I always approach comedy roles pretending they aren't funny.

I try to choose characters that don't remind the audience of my previous roles. I make a conscious effort for that.

I try to cover myself, to have another movie under way before the last one comes out. I've been able to just scrape by, holding out for good parts instead of taking anything.

I've never pursued a role. I always hear stories about actors going after parts and I'm, like, 'How do they do that?' It seems so weird. It seems like a total myth or something.

My instinct is to keep people guessing. I think as an actor your greatest strength is your versatility, I suppose. The blanker the canvas, the easier it is to project the illusion of a character onto it. I think there are many actors who do that very successfully.

Oliver Stone's strategy is to unnerve the actors so as to make them alert and alive.

I'm definitely interested in taking on roles where I don't look like myself. But I'm not saying I'm going to go out of my way to play a disabled person in order to win an Oscar.

As an actor, I never really had a strategy. I just take projects, as they come. It all comes down to the writing, at the end of the day, for me. I don't care if it's a two-line cameo or the lead of the thing, as long as the project has some weight behind the writing and it's interesting and I think people will enjoy it.

Maybe you're better to play a villain just straight out.

If you're playing a good guy, you show some darkness. If you're playing a dark guy, you show something different, like humor, that will mix it up and hopefully surpass the audience's expectations. What I'm battling all the time is complacency in the audience. I try to bring a little mystery to what might happen because that engages people more.

You don't want to shock them and do something totally opposite, but you also want to play a different character.

If I can keep it light in between scenes, then that helps me dig down further than if I try and stay at that constant place all day. That's just me. Every actor's got their thing. But that's what I do.

For me, to consciously seek unpredictable roles would be dangerous.

I would tell any actress that the trick is to play all the female characters on your show, and then all the men are yours.

Instead of playing something heavily, I play it lightly. Since people like to cast cyclically, once you've done one thing, people want to put you in that bag again. And since I want to work, I let it happen.

Some actors - myself included - like to know where your character's going: you like to know what the arc is for the character so that you can plan where you're going to give beats for this, that, and the other and give the audience what they want. But on 'Homeland,' you do the opposite.

Whenever I have to do an emotional scene, I just take my contacts out and it means I can't see anything.

I figure out who I'm playing opposite, and I really do study them.

When actors have the opportunity to play a larger-than-life icon - my wife did it with Tina Turner, and Jamie Foxx did it with Ray Charles - you have to make a decision how you go in. What do you start with? Where do you begin?

People say, 'Oh, you do theater!' And I say, 'Honey, I do theater to get better TV and film roles.'