David Zayas Quotes

As an actor, you are always someone else's tool. You can have a connection with them, and you can share their point of view, but ultimately, you are helping them reflect.

The trick to acting is not to show off, it's to think the thoughts of the character.

The actor is there to translate what's on the page onto the stage or the screen. So I find it important that an actor manages to actually get out of the way, vanish as a person behind the character, never to be seen or talked about again. That's my philosophy.

A good actor always sets you straight. If you've written a false moment and thought it was probably pretty great, the actor's gonna show you when he gets to that moment. They're the great test of the validity of the material.

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

I think my concerns are the same as every actor. Can I find this character and make it come to life properly?

For the actors, the talent is to serve the demands that I ask of them, to do it with naturality and truth, and to be honest when we were terrified.

My only job as an actor is to try and understand the character and, to the best of my ability, bring this character to life.

In acting class, teachers talk about how the 'givens' of a situation help define a character.

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

As an actor, you try to bring as much of yourself to a part to try and create a feeling of authenticity and emotional truth and resonance.

Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment.

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

What I mostly do is take the script, analyse the hell out of it, see what's in there, see what kind of person I'm dealing with, and then forget I'm playing a father and just play a person who exemplifies all those things.

My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

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 still fighting really hard to get any role I get. If it's comedy, I go for the laughs. And if it's drama, I try to tell the truth, and try to play the real stakes of whatever scenario the character's in.

Most of my training at graduate school was geared towards drama, so I feel good about it, and I can do it, but it requires a lot more work from me. I feel like with drama... well, with all acting, really, you need to honor the truth of the situation.

There's no one more willing to do something than an actor when it comes to perfecting a scene.

My job as an actor is to cover and expose in varying allowance that - so that the audience can peek through the window to the people I create.

Acting is all about finding the truth within whatever world you're in.

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.

I live in the energy and rhythm of the character. To some degree, that's true of every actor I've worked with.

I have a hard time watching films and not thinking how I would play any part, whether it's a man or a woman.