Michelle Yeoh Quotes

I never do roles, I play people.

I appreciate actors who work very hard to get at the truth of the character they're playing. That speaks to me, and I try to protect that process because I value the focus and intention behind it.

Good acting comes from finding the essence of a character.

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

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

My job as the actress playing Hanna Schmitz, as the actress playing any part, is to understand the character, and to ultimately love the character. And I did love Hanna, absolutely, because I understood her as profoundly as I did at the end of the day.

Real acting is about giving people an insight into a person, letting the audience in.

For a time, I really thought acting was just impersonating. But impersonation is just big brush strokes, really. What makes acting different is empathy.

I used to think the actor's job was immersing himself completely in another personality.

In every character you play, as much as you hate to admit it as an actor, but there's an element of you that you bring to it.

The worst acting is about imitation.

I think you ultimately have to love who you're playing. You have to have that kind of feeling. You have to have passion for the person.

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

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything.

I'm an emotional actor. When I'm doing a scene, I really believe it. I live the part as long as I'm in the scene.

When you are developing a character you have to bring so much of yourself to the role.

I've given every maid I've portrayed soul and heart.

As actors, you play people who are not yourselves!

'Serious acting' is the kind of acting that I don't ever respond to.

I don't believe actors who say they don't bleed into their characters. It's absolutely impossible not to.

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

As an actor, what you dream of is being able to portray people that people empathize with and understand and really feel for.

An actor is an actor is an actor. The less personality an actor has off stage the better. A blank canvas on which to draw the characters he plays.

I think it's always easier to play parts that you have something concrete that you can relate to.

I don't even draw on my life experiences when I'm acting. I just try and make it feel like I'm living through that person's skin.