Theodore Bikel Quotes

Any actor who is being honest will admit there's always a small or large part of the real you in every character. It's impossible not to have that.

Acting is perception, and as long as I'm honest with myself in my work, someone will appreciate it.

I try not to think of actors as I'm writing because I think you do them a disservice by writing for things they've already done.

You can't follow another actor's performance. You can't be Robert DeNiro, because you're not Robert DeNiro, and, you know, he is.

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

I don't see a difference between the idea of what an actor does and what someone supposes a character actor is, really.

To give a successful character portrayal on stage or on film, the part has to be played inside of you.

As an actor, you can do what you want with your role. That's why they hire you; to take the role and make it real.

The pleasure from acting comes from having great writing to work with. If it's well written and the character is interesting, then, as an actor, that's the raw material I need.

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

In every character you play, as much as you hate to admit it as an actor, but there's an element of you that you bring to it.

The worst acting is about imitation.

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.

If I have enough ego to say I'm a writer, a director, a producer, and an actor, I should have the energy and the knowledge to write a scene for this great actor named Henry Fonda and direct him in it and have it work.

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.

What is important to me as an actor is that, even if I have to spread my arms, take my shirt off on a mountain top with my heroine in a chiffon sari, it still has to be me and my twist or my funny take on it.

Actors are pretending for you, but they're not lying. They are not putting on a guise instead of themselves. They are finding things inside that they have experienced.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

Actors walk around wearing these little tool-belts of acting skills. And I just don't find that interesting to watch. I never want to see someone who clearly can cry at the drop of a hat. That's so uninteresting.

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

When you're portraying someone that really existed, there has to be a time as an actress where you leave reality and move into the fantasy world so you can do your job of creating a character.

To be with Derek Jacobi and Stellan Skarsgard, it's a master class in acting every day.

I think you have to draw from any character and bring it to yourself as much as possible.

It's kind of up to the actor to deconstruct the scene and deconstruct the character and figure out how to make it real. That's what I love about this job: It's sort of a puzzle each time, and figuring that out is sort the key, whether I'm playing a cop or a killer.

In every character that you play... I mean, I don't think I'll ever be the type of actor or performer per se who transforms, you know? Like Claire Danes transforms into Temple Grandin - I'm not gonna do that.