No one knows what he is doing so long as he is acting rightly; but of what is wrong one is always conscious.
The good thing about rules is if you have to do an interview, and you make some rules for that interview, like, "I can only ask him about five years of his life or her life," it narrows down your story. It's the same thing with acting. In my profession, if I say, "These are the rules for this character," all of the sudden, you create life.
Acting schools want to keep you in a position where they can still protect you, but in this industry no one's going to protect you except yourself. You've got to take care of yourself and you've got to get a great team around you.
I watched the Oscars, but there wasn't a side of me that was like "Oh, one day..." It was mostly "This is what I want to do, and how do I do it?" As soon as I decided that I was going to be an actor, for about five years after that, I just decided to not do much acting. It was like "Okay, this is what you're going to be later on."
There is still so much that I want to see and do, but for me, it's the pure satisfaction of doing what you really want. I always had a problem doing things that I didn't want to do. I don't have a problem when my director says: "Don't do it like this; I want it like this." But generally in life, I like to do what I want, and for me the best way is through acting and making films.
I learn a lot as a director from acting in other people's films and just in general. I want to try and be as involved in the art of filmmaking as possible. I feel that the only way to really do that is to take on as many roles as possible, whether it be as an actor, an editor, a director, a cinematographer. Basically, I like to help and be involved, so anything anybody asks me to do, my first reaction is to say "Yes."
The actual time you're acting is miniscule compared to the time you're getting ready to do the work. The big difference on series television is, there's not a lot of hanging-out time. You're pumping those pages out, you're doing six, seven, eight pages a day. And I like that pace.
Acting was the only place that I ever felt like I belonged so went for it with everything I had.
Bette Davis had a phrase that called it "cigarette smoking acting" .
I grew up doing martial arts, and it's one of these things where I always kind of liked acting, but I was never real serious about it.
I can't imagine ever not doing [acting]. I would feel like I would have lost a limb. But I am older now, and sometimes I wonder who I would have been and what about me would have changed had I not had these experiences as a young person
Acting, for me, is exhausting. I'm always more energized by directing. It's more intense to direct. I can pop in and express myself, then pop out again. It's a huge passion for me.
Definitely, there's a lot of trouble you come up against when you're acting and directing, about your performance. Sometimes it's hard to be objective about it. I will tend to get two takes and walk away. I don't belabor it, and it's important to me to have someone who says, "You know what? You should get another one, and maybe you should try it like that".
I don't find acting and directing schizophrenic, in any way. I find it completely easy to move between the two.
With 'Taxi Driver,' I had this eureka moment. I realized that acting could be much more than what I had been doing. I had to build a character that wasn't me.
High school is just horrible in general. So, I think it was a good time for me to have stopped acting. I got to be normal in high school.
My dissatisfaction with acting has nothing to do with being uncomfortable or vulnerable or feeling like people are going to criticize me. That's not the problem.
I don't cry. Well, you know, I think coming from an acting background that's really helped me because I more than anyone know that an actor creates a character.
I did commercials since I was 16, and that's kind of acting, depending on what you're selling.
If you're saying the same line 10 times and making it look like you just came up with it, that's acting.
Acting is my true love. I would like to have been a serious actor, and I plan to in the next life. I'm gonna be Meryl Streep Rivers.
I can't imagine writing if I didn't have a reader. Any more than an actor can imagine acting without an audience.
When I was at school, I was terrible at algebra and arithmetic, but I was always the best at English and literature. And acting, of course.
I do it because I love acting, I love working, and whether it's radio, television, films, theater, I don't care as long as I can get out there and do it.
If the costumes are wrong, you feel awful in them and it lessens your acting.
