Mary Steenburgen Quotes

This is going to sound cheesy, but with acting there are so many tools. When you're on camera, you're using all of it. You're using the voice, you're using your body, you're using wardrobe, all of it, but it's funny, once you take all of those things away, you realize how much you rely on the physicality.

Actors know one thing: If you're left just with words, you're in trouble.

Acting is doing, because everything you say or do is some kind of an action, some kind of a verb. You're always connected to the other person through some kind of action.

Sometimes I'm doing a big movie, or sometimes I'm doing a TV show, but as an actor, it's almost the same thing for me. If I'm doing action, or comedy, or something more heartfelt, it's a different approach, but it's all acting for me.

To be honest, I am somebody that, as long as I have a character, it doesn't really matter if it's comedy or drama - I think timing is important in either. But for me, it's all about having a character to work on.

Acting is very immediate.

I think the hardest thing I've had to learn is that just because people might speak a certain way in real life doesn't mean it's engaging in the theater.

Normally, if you play a part, you have the words, and you invent the personality out of your experience, your knowledge - your life, in a way.

As an actor, you want convince the audience that you can do different things. So, if I have to run in slow motion, I am more than happy to romance.

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

For any role, I pretty much always go to the script, first and foremost.

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do.

It's an acting job - acting natural.

Acting is real important to me. I love it, and it's something I care about.

Reading great dialogue as an actor is such a rare privilege.

I just want the actors to put their faith in the language. Just let the words do the work.

An actor works with their soul and their thought.

Good acting is all in the writing. If it isn't on the page, then it really won't make any difference. You cannot act on force of personality alone.

I got a chance to act, and I have to say that acting is extremely fun and vital.

And when I go to see plays, I marvel at how people can do that. I've done it all my life, but I still find it mystical.

As soon as you get two actors in a room and they're locking eyes, they're doing a scene.

I would rather do a play because it's instantaneous. You go on the stage, and you know whether it's happening or not. Somebody asked me 'What is acting?' And I said, 'Acting is listening.' And if you ain't listening, nobody's listening.

I would have to say that I have to concentrate more when I'm doing comedy. There are so many details that make up any character, but developing a character for a dramatic role seems to come more naturally.

Acting is not about anything romantic, not even fantasy, although you do create fantasy.

I love drama. I love to play an arc.