Eric Balfour Quotes

I learned two basic lessons on Everest. First, just because something has worked in the past does not mean it will work today. Second, different challenges require different mindsets.

I played saxophone, so I was into jazz. I learned from each audience and each teacher that I had. I can't really tell you any rules or anything, but the way I develop my beliefs is really just by personally learning from different situations.

I had a lot of learning on my feet.

In terms of being able to adapt to any situation on any given night, in any given moment and that just comes with nearly twenty years of experience and paying attention to the guys that I've tried to emulate throughout my career.

Growing up, I did a lot of work that was technically based. So, I sort of feel that, no matter where you're playing, the basics are still the basics. Then it's just about adjusting on the day.

[As an actor] I have ideas, but things should always be fluid. You should always be ready to follow an instinct. Something might reveal itself on the day.

You don't have a lot of time to massage a scene into oblivion. It's like you do it, you get a couple of good takes, and then you move on, so you have to be very spontaneous as an actor and have done your homework, and I like that.

It's great to work with people who are jobbing actors at different stages of their career, and learning from them, and getting over being star-struck by somebody like Ian McKellen because he has such a long prestigious history in the business, but then seeing how he works on the camera; you never stop learning.

In my work, I have never had any use for anything that I have known in advance.

A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.

When you get to work with people like Ian McKellen or directors like Peter Jackson, you sit and watch.

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting.

I've been on projects before where there's no rehearsal, and you walk in on set and that's literally the first time you've ever played the character, and then I've had times where there's been three weeks of rehearsal. I like both.

With 'Silver Linings,' I didn't feel - I was thinking of certain things, but I just said, 'Let me go with it.' You have to know what you're doing, where you're going with the scenes, and I put a lot of work into that. But when you're out there, at the same time you gotta be ready for anything.

I research every part thoroughly. I talk it out with my actor friends, but then I throw it all away when I get to the set. You have to be spontaneous.

I've been lucky enough to work with some of the best TV directors there are, and I've learned from how they had to handle when things don't go quite according to plan.

Every role sort of teaches you how to prepare for it.

Every day, you got to do adjustments. Every pitch. You got to do what it takes.

When I was younger, I was taught to be as versatile as possible.

Actors are terrible at overthinking things before they turn up to work, and they decide on a way they're going to do it, and then it's hard to break them out of it.

Every experience you have in life can be applied to different things.

There are days when you're in a good groove and the actor really understands the part and comes as prepared every day as you are and is so inside it. And then there's the day where, for whatever reason, it's just a harder slog. And I feel like those are the days where all the preparation and everything becomes more necessary because you have to find a third route there.

Doing a scene is like opening a bottle. If it doesn't open one way, try another - perhaps even give it up for another bottle?

I come from the theater and you normally have four or five weeks to prepare. For me, the fun of the job is to pull yourself into a subject that you know nothing about.

I've always been an actor. That's my job — I can be anything you want me to be.