It's natural for any actor that segues into directing to be an actor's director. You know how to relate to the actors.
If you compare me to an actor, I'm probably one of the best boxers in the profession. But if you compare me as a boxer, I'm probably one of the best actors.
I think there was no other profession for me. I was either going into an insane asylum or to be an actor.
There's an electrical thing about movies.
Eisenhower had about the most expressive face I ever painted, I guess. Just like an actor's. Very mobile. When he talked, he used all the facial muscles. And he had a great, wide mouth that I liked. When he smiled, it was just like the sun came out.
Michael Caine is a movie star, but he's also a great actor. I can't say that about every movie star. It's the concentration he has.
I guess [Richard] Pryor was that good. I never saw him in a theater, but I imagine he was that good, because he was such a phenomenal actor.
My path was to be an actor and it’s been very good to me in life. It’s broadened my horizons and given me a lot of gifts.
I suppose expectations are strange and I shy away from them. And the whole point of being an actor is to connect.
As an actor, you most often play relatively average parts, so to get to play extreme versions of anything, those are the most exciting parts.
I'm a comedic actor, not to mix words, but it's something I think about. A comedic actor. I like to think that Christopher Guest, Phil Hartman, Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness are comedic actors. And Dan Aykroyd, too. Those are my heroes.
Marlon once said to me about being an actor: Can you imagine going to work every day and pretending to be someone else?
I guess George Clooney would be a wonderful silent actor, and Leonardo DiCaprio is such a wonderful actor he certainly could do it.
The big turn in the late 90s was that I realized I was going to be doing this for a long time. I was fairly sure I was going to be an actor for the rest of my life, which I think calmed me down.
It's a super super strange world when the actors are the less weird ones.
When actors give their input, it can be very ego-driven, and directors are scared of that.
It's odd, how those things happen to actors. A thing where you think, "I have no idea how to do this," something will happen in your life comes up and you just get it. I don't know how you get it, but actors are pretty extraordinary, in that regard. I think it's fear that happens.
I'm willing to be representative. I'm just an actor. I'm just playing a role, so even if it is a person I do not like, I would do that.
I might have been curious about actors' lives when I was growing up. That's human nature.
A brick layer, lays bricks... I'm an Actor, that's what I do.
You can see all sorts of things in film acting if you know where to look and what to look for. One thing I often notice is that the actor is looking for his mark, the place where he has to stand to be in the right place in the shot.
I'm forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.
I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I'm my own most vicious critic. So I'm always trying to do it better.
The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.
Acting is being susceptible to what is around you, and it's letting it all come in. Acting is a clearing away of everything except what you want and need - and it's wonderful in that way. And when it's right, you're lost in the moment.
