I prefer to underplay scenes rather than, you know, be big and drive them. And sometimes you have to do that, but I like the more natural styles.
It's well done if you can do a part and not have the acting show.
I like playing guys where it's as important what they're thinking as what they're saying. Those are the people I like playing, and the actor that I strive to be. I like actors who work in that area and I like parts that allow me to work in that area.
I looked at early movies with Robert Redford, and I like how Robert, even though he had that automatic charisma and was a very verbal person, he always played those more silent characters and played within the scene and never overacted.
I call myself a character actor all my life. I've done a certain amount as a leading man, but character actors in my estimation - it's a lost art these days.
Well, I think one of the main things that you have to think about when acting in the movies is to try not to make the acting show.
I prefer the smaller acting than big histrionics. It's about reacting and looks, which is often underestimated.
Sometimes the better an actor is, the less he's noticed.
One of the traditions of film acting is a sort of mumbled realism. Be minimal, and do less. 'Even less than that.'
I'm kind of intimidated by the big screen - I often keep my performances much smaller and much more natural and subtle.
I admire an actor that can do a lot with doing nothing really, for the most part. I like doing a lot by doing so little.
When I first read the script, I realized that Katie would have to be played as a rather down-to-earth person.
It's a fine line. If you withhold too much, you come across as wooden - as I've often been described in some movies. Fair enough. I believe that the best performances are the ones that an audience has to search for.
I would almost say that the best screen actor is the man who can do nothing extremely well.
I've always loved subtle acting, and that's what I got to do.
My acting's very understated. I think my sad and happy don't play that differently onscreen.
The hardest thing to do as an actor is to be simplistic, and to just be.
I don't overact, so people think that I naturally act well. I underplay my roles, and that has worked for me.
I'm a huge fan of Jack Lemmon, he was someone who managed to tread that line between comedy and tragedy and sometimes give very big performances, but they were never over-demonstrative and they were never not based on a kind of real truthful human being.
I generally like grey roles. My interpretation of drama is different from the popular perception. Acting, for me, is not about overplaying, it is about concealing. I like flawed characters that people relate to. I would never do a romcom.
Sometimes I'm considered, I guess, a subtle actor. Maybe I'm less of a showman and more just trying to tell the story. I don't know what the perception is. I just want to tell the story so the story as a whole works as opposed to just making sure that I work.
I think, on a surface level, people are surprised to see me playing such a passive role in 'Good.'
