Naseeruddin Shah Quotes

As an actor, you're always at the service of somebody else's vision. In a play, it's more of the director's vision, and he or she's got their hands on you all the way up to opening night, and if it's a film, there are even more people.

As an actor, you're never really in control of the product. I think the goal is to create what you want. And if you can get as close as you can get to the creation of something, it starts with development.

See, that's the thing: I'm not one of those actors who thinks, 'God, I've got to improvise and make it my own.' No, my first job as an actor is to take what's written and make it work. And then, if they want me to improvise, I'll do that.

I'm an actor and my job is to interpret.

As an actor, you've got to have faith in the director's vision, that the director has a vision for this that is greater than the critics say.

In my experience, it's usually up to the actor how a character is portrayed.

I believe in giving actors the freedom to express themselves, and adding more to whatever is written.

I have realised I am a director's actor.

Acting isn't really a creative profession. It's an interpretative one.

As theater artists, it's a great luxury to have time.

It's your job as an actor to fill out the blanks. I love doing that. To fill in the bones.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

An actor can be as talented as another, but if he doesn't stick to what the director's intentions are, it all falls down. I adore working with actors.

An actor's job is about putting across the author's intention; I don't think of myself on the same level as a creator.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.

The actor depends wholly on himself. He gives his performance in what, to him, seems the most effective manner.

An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.

My greatest strength as an actor is that I follow my director's brief completely. The film is always the director's visual baby.

One is just an interpreter of what the playwright thinks, and therefore the greater the playwright, the more satisfying it is to act in the plays.

Each role demands the right actor. To play an artist, one must be an artist.

I think what makes a good actor's director is somebody who understands what I'm doing and is respectful of it, but who also has a vision and is directing me toward their vision in a way that feels productive.

Most actors go, 'I read the script and fell in love with it'; I fall in love with the directors.

There is no first-hand account of what the Queen was saying or thinking, so my job as an actor is to interpret her circumstances.

It is so cool having complete control over something because, with acting, it's words written by other people that you perform; you do something that's completely not yourself.