Griffin Dunne Quotes

We actually use a lot of improvisation on 'Transparent.'

Everything you do on set is directly related to your imagination when you read the script for the first time.

Most of the time I'm thinking, I'm glad that scene was improvised.

Many times I'll improvise it, which isn't done a lot in movies or commercials. But a lot of my commercials are improvised.

Very rarely have I had the opportunity to say lines which I would have said even if I wasn't working in a film.

I would make a huge distinction between theater improvisation and film improvisation.

In film you have the opportunity of retakes or of giving your best profile. In theatre, it's right here, right now.

The best thing about theatre is that every time we get onstage, the show is new.

You learn your lines as well as you can and you go in there and go with whatever is thrown at you. Sometimes you don't know whether or not they're going to break the scene up, so you don't have to do it all at one time.

There's no game plan when it comes to thinking up new characters; inspiration can come from anything - from a wig I've seen to an expression I've heard someone use.

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

Even with college, the reason I wanted to go so badly is because I wanted to major in film. I want to take screenwriting classes and learn more about behind the scenes stuff, because I love people like Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig who are able to write a lot of their own material and be so involved in everything they do.

I've always believed acting is an improvisational art form, even when not a single line is changed. I mean, the behavior should always be improvised. My favorite moments in any performance are when I'm just along for the ride; when I'm surprising myself. I know when I'm done and I think to myself, 'Gee, I didn't see that coming,' I've done well.

I've done a lot of theater, and I know that it's a different audience each time who doesn't know the story, and we have to tell it.

I don't like improvising on camera, particularly, but very often, a scene will not be working, and you rehearse it once or twice, and you realize something's missing. So I'll play with it until it makes sense.

Well, I love acting, and I love acting quick.

When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven't planned to try to see if I can pull it off.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

I've always really liked theater. It fascinated me. You can create a reality and get people involved in that reality. It takes place in real time.

With theatre, you have to be ready for anything.

If I know a guy who's a really good improvisational actor, I'd be foolish not to let him because he'll come up with goodies and all kinds of little freebies that you get.

I'd love to do a film. I'd love to play a character that I know the beginning, middle and end of.

In real life, you don't know what's going to happen to you, so why would your character know? It's liberating to play the emotion your character is feeling at the time and not know what's coming up. I like it.

I prefer to surprise myself as I'm writing. I'm not interested in it if I already know where it's going. So I have only the most general sense of what I'm doing when I start a story. I sometimes have a destination in mind, but how the story is going to go from Point A to Point Z is something I make up as I go along.

The minute I ever start thinking about what a character would do is the minute I bring my ego into play. It's the minute I'm putting a judgment on something.