Actor's Routine Quotes

I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.

If I'm trying to put size on for a role, then I don't do much running.

Maybe I'll put my iPod in two minutes before. But truly, I've listened to actors say that they loved to listen to music before a shot, and I really understand that now because it puts you in the mood and gives you energy.

When my hair was dark for 'House,' that was the hardest to maintain because it was like every three weeks my light roots would start coming in. And you can't really just dye your hair one color brown because then it looks like a helmet on television, so then I had to have four colors of brown woven into my hair every three weeks.

Working out and working as an actor have gone hand in hand - I always feel more prepared if I know I have done a workout. It gives me confidence - and peace of mind.

I can't act without music very well.

The makeup [for Count Olaf] took about two and a half hours every morning. The meditation was another hour and a half. I would eat a big breakfast - that was probably 45 minutes. And then it was lunch.

When I work on a film, you know, I try to get or inhabit the body of the character -from the vision of the directors or how i think the character should be - so if it's a film like SPEED, you hit the gym, you get to do some, train with SWAT People, hehe, but in general, I'm really focused and dedicated, and then in regular life, I don't go to the gym as often.

I often have a few scents depending on if I'm playing a character. The character may be wearing a scent that perhaps I wouldn't wear. We've all got different moods and ways we want to express ourselves; scent is a very powerful way to let people in to your secret life.

I keep dumbbells in my trailer, and I work out between takes.

I create a playlist for each and every character that I play.

Most films, when you finish as an actor, you just go home.

I work out religiously. It's great for my back. It's great for my core. I've been exposed to lots of exercise regimens and movement classes as an actor, so I understand the importance of stretching and staying limber, but Pilates is what's really spoken to me. It works everything out.

I have to have eight hours a night. I feel that everything falls apart if you don't sleep. If I spend four hours memorizing dialogue but don't sleep, then the next day I will not be able to stand in front of the camera and say my lines. For me, sleep is the number one thing.

Spencer Tracy was a man who did very much what I do on a set, and that is, he comes down and he does his job, and then he goes back to his dressing room.

I train like a pro-athlete, not like an actor who's just trying to look pretty.

Yeah, you know, if I'm having an emotional scene I do like to go off and be by myself; not to say that I'm a method actor or anything like that, but for scenes like that that are more emotional, I do like to take that night off and not be so social.

There's all that brain work involved, remembering all those lines in a script. I find I have to eat a lot of fish, late - but not too late - in the afternoon. Doing theatre, you need to be like an athlete in training.

I was walking around with the babies so much that when I got to the Sidney Lumet picture, I would be on set in between takes and I'd be rocking back and forth. Just standing like this rocking back and forth, and Sidney would say, Why are you walking like that in between takes?

I now go to my dad's grave to read scripts and learn lines. It's the most peaceful place. I go to see him, and it's fantastic.

In 'W,' I did not change a word in the script. I have never spoken this much in other series. I just stick to whatever is written. I always carry the script with me and read it before I sleep.

When I'm on set, I'm always waiting around for people to move the cameras so I can try to squeeze in press-ups and sit-ups between scenes.

I usually spend the hiatus of 'Dexter' in New York in a way to balance things.

There is nothing worse than sitting in the make-up trailer knowing that the whole crew are twiddling their thumbs waiting for you to change your hair from straight to curly or up to down. Sometimes it can't be avoided.

The script looks huge when you first get it, but you just have to go home and drill the lines out. The more you read it, the shorter it gets. I usually read it at least four times.