Andrew Dominik Quotes

I still think of myself as a stage actor. When I do film and television I try to implement what I was taught to do in theatre, to try to stretch into characters that are far from myself.

People say that they like the characters that they believe that I am. But, I don't as much. I like the characters that I believe that I am not. Like my role on 'Law and Order.' That character unnerved people. And I loved every second of it. I want to continue growing as an actress. There are ways that I can reach quicker, or deeper, with acting.

I try to allow the spirit of the character to live through me. That's the only way I know how to approach acting. I have to live it.

Actors pull from their own experiences to bring reality to the characters. I wouldn't want to play someone who's a lot like me. There would be no turning it on or off.

Some actors can distance themselves from the parts they play, but I fall into the category who use bits of themselves.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.

There's a wonderful adage in acting that you're stuck with the character, but the character is also stuck with you.

As an actor, you can't just imitate someone. You have to get under her skin.

As actors, that has been challenging for us to pick up the nuances of the living legends we are playing.

I think, for every actor, the most challenging part of playing a character, specially a real-life character, is to convince yourself that you are the character.

The actor's job is to put themselves in the shoes of the character they are trying to portray as truthfully as possible.

None of the characters I've played are really like me. That would be boring. That wouldn't be acting.

What attracted me to acting, from the start, was playing different characters. I'm not a massive fan of just playing myself on screen.

I love acting... I really do. I love crawling into another character's skin. That's something that I've always, always, always, always wanted.

I love acting and really taking on another person, another life.

When I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn't know how to play them when I was drunk.

I tend to get comfortable with the dialogue and find out who the person is in the script and try to hit that. People are sort of independent of their occupations and their pastimes. You don't play a politician or a fireman or a cowboy - you just play a person.

I think of myself as an actor. The duty of an actor is to be able to impersonate anything - a child, an old man, a tree, a chair, a woman.

It's a great challenge to get to play a real-life character. Every actor would love to get a chance, at least once in his life, to play a real-life character.

That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

I never act my characters - I am them.

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

That's what I love about acting, is playing different roles. I want to work for the character, and not make it work for me.

When I act, a part of me goes into the character I am playing.

I love playing characters, so I'm always telling my agents, 'Don't worry if the character description is something you think I'm not. Let me try to be that person.'