Campbell Scott Quotes

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

Acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion.

On the stage you develop a character that's different from yourself. In a film they're always saying, 'Walk over here. Say this line. Be you.'

The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.

Being an actor is a lot more involved than many people realize; there are hundreds of ways to play any character. Even for a stylized bad guy, there are 4 or 5 different personalities I can play off the top of my head without thinking - better and more experienced actors can do dozens or hundreds.

Acting is the only medium were people think they can just stand up and do it because they can say lines, but that is not so much the case. You have to study styles and techniques.

Acting is not a mystery. There's nothing that I know that other actors don't know. We all act, we're all actors, we all know the same thing. The only thing that separates us is experience.

I wouldn't call myself a method actor, but I have my own method. I do my own research. I come up with a background for the character. I'm not a club man. I don't like isms. I've never really studied Stanislavski.

Some actors are what I call more like mirror actors, which means that they do a performance at home in front of the mirror, and then they go deliver it. I'm not that type.

Acting is a state of being, and the camera can tell instantly if you're lying. But there are many different ways to approach that state of being. Each director has his own approach to the situation, and that's really interesting.

There is an art to acting, and there are techniques that are acquired. You can be as emotional as you'd like, as a person, but figuring out ways that you can bring specific emotions at specific times and have them be true, and relating to someone as someone that they're not, is a lot.

I'm not a method actor. The techniques that I follow have been created and practiced in my own journey, ones that I have researched, formed and invented.

An actor will use every piece of information at their disposal, or a good actor will.

When I do the roles, when I'm in the room and auditioning, I'll ask the director if they're cool with me adding stuff, or just improvising while we're doing it. And I would say, like, 90 percent of the time, they say, 'Absolutely.'

Maybe I can't act, but I know the gimmicks. I studied acting all my life and know what's good for me.

As a filmmaker I find it much more rewarding to work with actors who are classically trained. It's about the work and only the work.

Some actors get by with behaving, not acting. You've got to sell the effect. I act more in the 'Nightmare' movies because it's not like me. I'm acting, not reacting.

Part of the fun of acting is the research, finding out about other people.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

There's a lot of actors that I admire because they can just switch one second into the character. Then, they go back to jokes, and then they're doing something really dramatic. I can't do that. I have to really focus.

Watching a good actor is the best way to learn.

I'm always looking, as an actor, for activities. I think it's far more interesting to watch what people do than what they say. You always want to watch behavior, because the dialogue as written by our illustrious leaders is great. Eminently playable.

It's not good just to have life experience of film-making and that's all. It's hard to play a real person when you've been in jets and town cars for three years.

I think the buzz of acting is playing people different to you, and for me, that means traversing all genres.

You know, I've never been much of a method actor. I feel like, with every project I go in extremely prepared and I like to have a good time.