Elaine Dundy Quotes

I've spent all my life playing roles that illustrious people have played before me.

I thought acting was showboating.

I think that always, as an actor, I don't want to overstep or pretend that I'm doing anything more than I'm doing.

Acting is all about big hair and funny props... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it.

My job always is to play a person, not to judge her.

We're actors. We're the opposite of people.

I don't quite fit in in like a pure dramatic thing, but I still think of myself sometimes as sort of a dramatic actress.

The theatre is a gross art, built in sweeps and over-emphasis. Compromise is its second name.

There is a large element of me in every role I do.

I always try to make each character my own.

Sometimes I say I feel more like a dancer than an actor, because there are things implied about being an actor that I don't really like. I feel more comfortable with the word 'performer'. I like being the thing. I like being the doer. There's a factualness to it. And then certain resonances happen out of how you apply yourself physically.

I knew that I could be more creative onstage, to state my own case and deliver my own interpretation of the role much more aggressively than in the recording studio.

Acting is an art form. If you are not creating something that's unusual and informative and at least has the possibility of being illuminating, then you are not into it as an art form.

I hate actors who come and quote Nietzsche.

Actors want to act. I think a lot of times what happens is that they're expected to bring it all. Probably because I'm a writer, I'm not telling them what to do. I just provide them with as much as I can.

I think it's always challenging to look at a script and make it your own while maintaining the sense of what the style of the show is.

Actors die so loud.

I always have a rule that acting is acting and truth is truth and you just go out there and you do it. But what happens in each medium is that you have other responsibilities. The acting remains the same, but each medium dictates assuming other halves to make the acting work.

No actor wants to play someone else's performance.

My act is an exaggeration of a part of me. I'm much more expressive off stage.

When you read a play, the words speak to you. When you read a script, there's no way you can tell if that's the way that movie will turn out.

I think theater ought to be theatrical.

My James Bond wasn't any different to my Saint or my Persuaders or anything else I've done. I've just made everything that I play look like me and sound like me.

Singers have a lot in common with actors because you have to dig deep into a song and show the audience what you are feeling as you sing.

You can say your lines a million different ways and play your character a million different ways and still hit the common, agreed-upon finish line.