Edward Norton Quotes

That's my way in the very beginning - how to enter it [a role]. Very quickly in the process, I don't think about voice being separate from the way you hold your head or the way you sit or the way you put on lipstick. It's all a piece of a person, and it's all driven by conviction.

I guess because I pay so much attention to the physical part of the character, I don't look upon it as like Charlize Theron up there. I don't think of them as like Charlize Theron films.

You have to be completely in the character, and that's so hard to do. That's why, when they call, 'Cut!,' you often feel yourself shift. Unless you're Daniel Day Lewis, who stays in character all the time, there's a switch that happens.

I believe in the fact that to portray a character convincingly, you need to live that character, own that character. You have to be earnest with every line that you deliver. However, it doesn't mean that you have to cut off your true self.

What you're trying to do as an actor is somehow trick yourself into believing that these words have never been said, and so you've got to discover them for the first time.

I'm certainly not one of those actors who remain in a dark place the entire time in order to be doing the scene. I sort of come in and out of it. It can be to the detriment of my performance sometimes!

The worst acting is about imitation.

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

I never like to go out of character when filming starts. I fear that if I do, I might not be able to pick it up again.

I do whatever I need to do to get into character. Sometimes it's being incredibly quiet, and sometimes it's being loose and goofy.

When I act, a part of me goes into the character I am playing.

I think substitution is a huge part of acting, but I don't personalise my work that much.

You hear stories of intense actors who can't shed their character and who don't know who they are for a week or two after. I'm not that guy, man.

I've played American characters so many times now, it's so natural to me. But when I play American, I stay in the American accent from the minute I get the job till the minute I wrap.

When you're shooting you go to references in your mind. You think about how you should stand in these particular clothes, or how you should move. You think about the different characters you're playing, really.

I immerse myself right into my character whether or not I'm relating to people live as an actor on stage or whatever.

Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

Actors who say they can dive inside a character are either schizophrenic or lying.

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.

I tend to - every time I step onto the set until the time I go back to the hotel, I just try to be in character all the time.

I could not be one of those actors who stays in character all day long. I'd go mad.

Whatever headspace you need to live in for your character is sort of where you stay in between scenes.

You've got to bring yourself to any character you do.

I find that I kind of have to sink into the character.