On-the-Spot Performance Quotes

Being in TV, we get to do it again and again until it's 'right.' There's a part of me that likes the other way, that aspect of theatre where there's no chance to go back.

You can't really plan with acting!

In 'There's Something About Mary' and 'Dumb & Dumber,' I ended up improvising quite a bit of my scenes, and later I didn't even remember what I'd said because I just winged it. When I went and saw the movie, I was as stunned as everyone else was.

'Portlandia' is 100 percent improvised, and I came into this business not knowing anything.

One of my favorite things is when people will ask for a song that I hadn't planned to play. It is really fun to see if you can remember something, and you don't always. I mean, sometimes it's just crash and burn.

I don't prepare for any role. I go on the sets and do it.

I am very much a seat-of-the-pants actor. I will prepare when I have to. But I like being unprepared.

I don't develop anything. I don't practice, I don't rehearse. I just go out there, and it's just amazing and unpredictable and spontaneous every single time. It's the most cultivating incredible performance that you can go and see live for the amount of money that you can see it for.

My first day on the set of 'John Adams', I was just supposed to fly to Virginia for a costume fitting. But the director figured, why not shoot it, too? So they threw me into a dress that didn't fit, gave me lines I hadn't seen, in a dialect I didn't know, and two screaming, arching infants.

An actor finds things in the moment with a director and other actors that you don't have time to hand-draw or animate with a computer.

Most of my work in New York has been on new musicals. And all through the preview process, they throw you new songs, new lyrics, new choreography, new scripts; you're constantly getting new material. You might get it in the morning and put it in the show at night. It happens every single day, so those muscles are pretty toned.

I would make a huge distinction between theater improvisation and film improvisation.

There's actually something interesting about having no rehearsal time - you have to just walk in and go with your gut, which is exciting.

In the kind of films that I do, there is an extremely limited number of people that can improvise. The reason the ensemble continues in the movies is because those are the people that can do that kind of work. It's not just an accident those people are in the film.

From the moment I saw 'Camelot' as a kid, the organic inclination of performing before a live audience is raw and visceral. Once you're out there, there's no yelling 'Cut!' or any such thing as a do-over because that moment has passed, and you're in it as it's happened and gone, sharing it with everyone.

My gigs are built on improvisation: I go out there and I'm like the Energizer bunny.

You've got to remember that improvisers are writers and actors and directors all simultaneously. That's what's happening in real time because you're writing on your feet, and you are acting out the words and you are directing what the staging is. You're deciding what staging is.

I think when people talk about improvising it turns into this silly thing like, "Oh there's like a hula hoop there and I'm like 'Oh what's going on here? Is this a really big ring?'"

The thing about live TV is that it simply has to be done, there's no space for procrastination.

When I was in a couple of movies in the '80s, I was winging it.

'Curb' is 100 percent improvised, which is wild. I'd never done anything like that.

Then we tried to come up with ideas for the sketches, and then, when we actually shot the movie, we really just sat down - never previewed the movie - we just really winged it.

In television you don't have a lot of time to spend with the role or the script. Typically you get a script a week prior to shooting. Sometimes it's even less time, not enough time to dream about the role.

I've done a lot of television, and there's no rehearsal process - you have to come to the set with your guns blazing and with a point of view.

Those differences are what color the performance, but in the movies you don't get a chance to rehearse.