Paul Dano Quotes

In acting, you have to fool yourself - you mess with yourself into believing things.

For actors, the idea is that you convince people you're someone you're not.

Actors are able to trick themselves into treating anything as if it's fantastic. It's a kind of madness really.

I don't have any training as an actor, but I guess I'm an intense pretender. When you read something over and over, it gets into you a little bit. You can't help but begin to feel it, even if you're a healthy person as I think I am.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

As an actor, we spend so much putting the mask on and trying to be someone you're not.

The odd thing is if you asked me to do the accent now I would find it very difficult unless I was also playing that part, because I associate it so much with entering into the role and stepping into someone else's shoes.

How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.

Part of being an actor is almost self-hypnosis during those brief moments when the cameras are rolling. You want to actually believe you're Chris Gardner or Muhammad Ali.

The point of acting is to pretend you're someone else and sell a story.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

With any role, you're extending yourself and acting out things that never happened to you.

That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

That's precisely what we do as actors: try to convince the audience we are somebody else. And if you can do that, you are really doing something.

I was that kid who was always practicing crying or falling asleep or being angry or being excited. I was that weirdo in my room making faces.

You don't really ever think you're that crazy person you're playing.

A large part of acting is just pretending. You get to work with these other great make-believers, all making believe as hard as they can.

Pretending to be other people is my game and that to me is the essence of the whole business of acting.

An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.

You have to come in and be that character when you walk into the room. That's what one of my first acting teachers taught me. You know, don't go in there being Jennifer and then expect to flip and change, because they're not going to have that imagination.

I find it quite easy to get in and out of character. I don't know why - I guess it's my job.

You draw on whatever's relevant to the part you're playing; it makes it more personal.

When I'm acting, it's like I am the character - no one can talk to me. But I'm not so method I'd sell my house and live on the street to play a tramp.

I like to be absorbed in what my character's doing.

Ultimately, we're actors: I'm putting on a costume, so we're playing pretend.