Acting Under Pressure Quotes

I mean God knows I've done tons of schlock during the course of my career and stuff that's been very low budget and really pressed for time, but I've never had an experience like this. I kept saying to people, "How do you do this?" I said to Susan [Lucci], "How do you do it?" I don't recall exactly what she answered me but it was something like "Close my eyes and think of England. You just do it."

I think it's a bit short-sighted to play any character and not explore, in some respects, the way they act when things get really bad.

When you're onstage in theater, if you mess up a line, there's no 'Cut! We'll get it again.' It's full steam ahead.

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.

I wouldn't say one is easier or more difficult, but when you're inside a costume and a mask, you have to endure heat - and, often, difficulty seeing. The vision is not very good in a mask. And you have to cope with that, as well as trying to think about this character.

Comedians work great as actors because they're good under pressure. With a lot of actors, you have to make them feel like everything's going really well to get a good performance out of them. But, if you have a comedian on the set, you can tell them, 'Hey, you really are screwing this up,' and then they just get better.

Sometimes you go into a film and you have no time to prepare and have to compress the details into a few days and then rely on the instinct and what happens when you're in a scene with other actors and that chemistry or not.

I always say if you've seen good acting on television, those actors are really good. Because there's just not enough time. You don't have any preparation.

You need great actors in this one, because there are moments where there's no way to get around it, you just need to come up with it. They have no time; they can't help you with coaches: "We've got to have it now!" Whether it's tears, whether it's a five-page scene. You can't put it off tomorrow because we're already behind; you've got to have it. I'm just amazed at the casting and how wonderful everybody was.