Jeff Daniels Quotes

My process is I try to learn my lines so they're so solid I don't have to think about them or how I'm going to say them.

I'm just always learning lines. I've learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them.

For any role, I pretty much always go to the script, first and foremost.

I'm a technician. I don't go for the get-into-the-role stuff. I read the lines and play the scenes.

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.

I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes. I got my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times. That was my research.

The camera does not like acting. The camera is only interested in filming behaviour. So you damn well learn your lines until you know them inside out, while standing on your head!

As an actor, you really want to respect and honor the script. You want to try to be in the moment and you also realize that you're one part of a bigger picture and when they call action, you have your dance.

I am a really writer-oriented actor.

I'll read a script maybe twice, but I'll think about the role more than I'll rehearse lines.

I don't worry too much about learning lines per se. The memorization is the easy part for me, usually. For me, it's more about working on the context, back story, intention, motivation, etc. Once that's in place, the lines come pretty naturally.

People always ask about learning all of your lines as an actor, and it's generally the easiest part of the job.

Honestly, soaps are great training. You're doing 90-plus pages a day. It was my acting class, where I built my foundation for showing up and being professional.

Your job as an actor is to piece together whatever you've learned in your training, or whatever you have experienced in your life, to piece together a person.

As an actor, your first priority is the work - immersing yourself in the role, backstory, and bringing that to screen.

The most vital thing for an actor to deliver a great performance is to be honest to the role he or she is playing.

Acting is about portraying something... that dedication or learning the script of it is really important in really getting to know a topic.

Forget about hair or our appearance. My acting style is different from my other colleagues.

Ultimately, as an actor, it comes down to committing to the text in the script.

I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist.

I work with my acting coach to help me get into character and do pronunciation drills and tongue twisters to help me deliver lines.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

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

I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.

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