Actor Presence Quotes

It was a strange feeling, filming a night scene in Selly Oak High Street with a television crew and famous actors in tow, when twenty years ago, at that time of night, I would've been stumbling around in search of a kebab.

As soon as the actor steps into the role, you probably can cut 50% of the lines because there's a person there now. And what a person does with their eyes, with their mouth, with their hands, the way they walk into a room, you can probably cut half the scene.

I'm in all my films, I can't help it. I just jam myself in there if there's a space.

'Fast Times At Ridgemont High' is one of my favorite movies; it's a film that's a human comedy, it's a drama, and the characters all, in a way, fit the teenage archetypes, but they don't become stereotypes because each of the actors brought their own presence and their own personality to the screen.

I love Charles Bronson. He didn't have a lot of range, and he wasn't a great actor, but you couldn't take your eyes off him.

There is one confrontation scene toward the end of the picture. In the middle of the scene, I thought, That's Sean Connery! I don't know how else to describe Sean Connery. I still feel that way.

I think there are certain actors that have that kind of energy about them, that taking over a room energy.

Take any movie with an actor you like. Turn your head and just listen to the performance. In some cases, the physical presence remains as strong when you can't see the actor, when it's just the voice.

I think one thing that's always a concern to me is you see a role, and you're not seeing the character; you're seeing so-and-so do it. Then I'm taken out of the story considerably, personally.

If you have John Goodman in your movie, you want to use him as much as possible.

To me, Elijah Wood is one of the best actors of my generation. He's so incredibly present and in the moment, when you're working with him, and then we just chat away about anything off camera because he's a lovely guy.

When you're still, and some actors are really brilliant at that, you bring a kind of energy to you as opposed to sending the energy out. There are some actors, like Gary Cooper or Kevin Spacey, that are absolutely brilliant - Gene Hackman is another - at being and allowing the audience to just do the work.

[Marlon] Brando was the only guy who could step out of that shadow at the end of that movie and be worth the wait.

In my movies, there has been little to do in the way of animal rights. I have never worked in a movie with animals. No horse-riding, no trained dogs, lions, bears. A few actors, but what could I do? We had to have them.

They were always my favourite scenes working with Don Warrington. He's such a brilliant actor, he has such a presence, you don't have to act with him you just react you know he's so good.

I always thought that if you don't feel the breath in the actors' bodies, you lose all the intimacy and truth.

It is impossible to give a performance that makes you unaware of the fact that you're watching an actor and be really involved in all aspects of filmmaking.

One of the great pleasures of going to see a Daniel Day-Lewis film: you haven't seen him in five years. Where have you been? So, it's a special event, right? Well, if you want to go see a movie that I'm in, it still may be a special event for you, but, you don't feel like you don't know where I've been.

I can't do a film where I appear in a song and then disappear.

Once you start working with a particular actor, that actor becomes very present in your mind as your mind as you're writing subsequent episodes.

When you have a major movie star, and then they're surrounded by local extras, it takes me out or makes me more conscious of what's going on, as opposed to losing myself in the movie.

People liked my performances in 'Kill Dill' and 'Happy Ending,' but I was hardly there in them.

I love watching amazing actors and actresses that you can't take your eyes off of because everything they are doing - even if it is just twiddling their thumbs or scratching their eye - it's just interesting.

There are a lot of stars I've worked with - big stars - who, when they walk on set, the energy just changes.