Sometimes acting is really cool because it forces you to exercise certain muscles in your personality that you wouldn't normally be called upon in life.
I don't have the passion for acting that actors might have.
I know acting is not impersonating, but I'm good with impressions. I can do impressions of people I know, and people I've been, and roles that I've acted before.
Everyone has to do the same work as actors - I teach acting. But there are those people who come on, and there's just something about them in and above themselves that has to do with chemistry and electricity - this aura about them. And that's unmistakable. Do I have that? Yeah, I think I have that.
I don't like show business. I don't like the business. I love acting. I love this. I love talking to people.
I don't think eliminating the knowing-doing gap depends on the amount of knowledge around. It depends much more on people's attitudes and intentions - do they actually want to turn knowledge into action, or just go through the motions of acting as if they are busy or are accomplishing something.
There's a kind of acting that goes on in my head when I'm writing a character where I put myself in their place.
For an acrobat, the acting concepts of 'risk', 'a life or death situation' and 'trusting your partner' are visceral. If an actor loses focus, the scene dies; if an acrobat loses focus, their partner might die.
I think it's a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.
I understand professionals have to work when they don't feel like it, and I certainly don't feel like it. So maybe this will put the nail in the coffin for my acting career.
I had success as an actor relatively early. When I was 22, I got nominated for an Academy Award for The Last Picture Show, so that road, you know, had the least resistance. I was doing my music all that time, but it's pretty hard to turn down these great movie offers. And my father counseled me; he said, "You know, one of the wonderful things about acting is that you can incorporate all of your interests into the different parts you play." I'm glad I listened to the old man, because that's the way it turned out.
Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.
I remember when I was a kid, with the acting thing, I resented it because, you know, you don't want to do what your parents want you to do.
I'd done about 10 movies before I decided I wanted to make acting the main thrust of my career.
Acting isn't a profession, it's a way of living.
You've got to trust your instincts, your judgment and trust the storytelling that came before and the quality of the acting with the emotion.
One can't allow blind loyalty to a friendship to lead one away from acting in the public interest. If Martin [Schulz] were to propose something that was totally absurd, our friendship would not prevent me from doing the opposite.
There seems to be a weird ceiling to being a stand-up as far as acting.
There is a lot of acting that is on the table - precisely, good acting. The best movies of mine are the ones that really nobody saw. The Groomsmen, Playing By Heart and Seeing Other People are by far the work I'm the most proud of.
French troops arrived in Afghanistan last week, and not a minute too soon. The French are acting as advisers to the Taliban, to teach them how to surrender properly.
I enjoy acting, and it's given me a ton of happiness and it's affected my life and my family's lives in ways that we just can't imagine.
I like to be challenged acting wise and I like to do things that I'm scared of.
Well, I've been a professional racer for nine years. And if I could get it to pay me as much as acting, I'd give up all the rest in a second. Working in television, however, has made me accustomed to a certain lifestyle that I'd like to maintain.
Acting is usually regarded as a wholly narcissistic pursuit but there really is a hunger in me to unravel the human condition.
I could release myself into acting in a way that I was not released socially.
