Patrick Marber Quotes

Casting is everything. Getting the person that you imagined is this character and then seeing what they bring to it.

As an actor, when you want to capture the spirit of the character, and the character exists in all of the iterations slightly differently, you work towards getting a sense of what the creators wanted to do, you know? Then, you work off of that.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it.

I act according to the requirements of the character, and if I try to play the role, then I play it truthfully. In my daily life, I'm a laid-back, peaceful guy. I'm just doing my job to act.

I live in the energy and rhythm of the character. To some degree, that's true of every actor I've worked with.

I've approached every character I've ever played with a poem, first and foremost.

I am trained in theatre, and so I take time to study and get into the skin of a character.

I don't normally think of a specific actor. I concentrate on the character, and then when we get into pre-production, that's how names come up.

There's some actors that go easily between drama and comedy because they play the naturalism of the role, and they just have natural timing.

I only cast the actors and actresses I fall in love with - truly having an emotion for them, an anticipation and enthusiasm when seeing them - and I believe that my emotional confidence in them blends into chemistry. It's always been like that, and I hope I won't be wrong in the future.

I don't really write with actors in mind; I write with characters and then hope desperately that we can get good actors to play those parts.

Well, as an actor, at least from my standpoint, I can't not like who I'm playing.

I don't really have choices in the material I get. So I have to make the choices in the way I play the characters.

I've always considered myself an actor first and foremost.

What makes an actor, I think, is a combination of a deep curiosity about life and a case of the crazies.

I'm always amazed when any actor can decipher my direction.

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.

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

I want to break into the acting industry. It's something I have a great deal of respect for; it's a passion of mine. It's so amazing, the differences between acting and being an athlete, but the one commonality is they both evoke emotion in the viewer. And those emotions are real. So I think that's pretty cool.

As an actor, you try to bring as much of yourself to a part to try and create a feeling of authenticity and emotional truth and resonance.

As an actor, it's more interesting to play a nerd than anything else. It's a lot more fun - you don't worry about 'what's my hair like?' in the morning or 'which is my great angle?'

Before there was any talk of a movie, people would sometimes ask me what actors I would imagine playing these characters. And the only thing I could ever say is: I have such a clear idea of these characters that they'd have to play themselves.

I find it easier to play someone who is so far from me because you create someone - you build this person based on the story and the script, with the director.

I have just gained a deeper and deeper respect for acting and the whole art of it because you're really trying to live a life and to do the best justification for it.