Scene Performance Quotes

Each character has their own challenges. The challenge to doing one scene is your whole history of who you are and your relationships, you only have this one shot.

I was working with Bryan Cranston in 'All the Way.' We were about to make an entrance together - I was Hoover, he was LBJ - and he says to me, 'You should play the brother in 'Better Call Saul.' I was like 'What?' and it was time to go on. I'm doing the scene, and I can't think of what Hoover's supposed to say.

You can do a whole scene in acting without ever checking in to what the other guy is saying - it's not going to come off great, but you can get through the scene - whereas in improv, that's gonna be impossible.

When on the set of a film, you have to play natural for entire scenes in a very unnatural environment. You have to express emotions and interact with other actors and also use your voice.

So you have the challenge of just learning the lines, period, and not only learning them, but learning them to the extent that you assimilate them, so that you're not worried about what the next word is coming out of your mouth when it comes to doing a scene. And you're also in the trenches with the writers, just in the wonderful kind of back and forth of how is it best to say something, even if it involves four or five words. I love that kind of thing.

You got to get used to somebody, when you're acting or going through a scene, somebody yelling, "Do it a little louder!" OK, you do it a little louder.

I think you're sort of always waiting, wondering when the word "cut" is going to be said when you're doing a scene. Like you're there and you're doing the scene and you're always sort of like, ‘Okay. Are they going to call cut? How far are we taking this? Are they going to call cut?’

I remember so vividly playing a scene with Jimmy Stewart. I was in the back of a covered wagon, and we were doing this little talk in the wilderness. They did his close-up first. I was looking at him and thinking, 'How does he do that?' He is not 'doing' anything, and yet everything is there.

You can lose your ability to play romantic scenes... you have to ensure that your mind is in the right place.

I just learn my lines, go on set. Do my preparation, whatever that is. Have a cup of coffee. Say hello to everyone. And be friendly. "Action" - and then do it.

I've done scenes in films that I felt like the performance was better in certain takes, but they couldn't use them because it didn't match what the person was doing when they came around and the camera was on them.

Jeff Bridges taught me a lot about how to keep a scene fresh.

The absolute worst thing you can do in a scene is be apathetic.

When I was in theater school, we did these relationship exercises - you would play my sister, and I'd give you all this information about my sister, and then we'd get up and perform this scene, and you'd pretend to react as my sister. It was like therapy!

I played a scene at the end of my first year, and that's how I was discovered.

When you are doing a long scene, you have dialogue and interaction to narrate the character. But making sense out of facial expression and reacting is difficult. Having said that, I think such challenges are good for learning.

I've always really been a fan of scenes in which you're able to be as natural as you want.

When you relate to a person and are being friendly, it's easy to do a scene without looking uncomfortable.

As an actor, you think you have to go really far and deep and cry and yell to be good in a scene. Sometimes that's not the point.

Before filming I'll be constantly thinking about my role at the back of my mind and slowly build up the intensity until I can explode on set. There is a very fine line between not quite getting there, and getting that bit too intense.