Gene Tierney Quotes

I don't cry. Well, you know, I think coming from an acting background that's really helped me because I more than anyone know that an actor creates a character.

I think when you're an actor and you're drawing on your emotions all the time, you need to be quite steady.

Bad actors try to cry, and good actors try not to. Bad actors try to laugh, and good actors try not to.

Actors walk around wearing these little tool-belts of acting skills. And I just don't find that interesting to watch. I never want to see someone who clearly can cry at the drop of a hat. That's so uninteresting.

This acting's serious! And I really respect those actors. It's a tough business to be able to be something you're not and be natural and convince people on camera.

Acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion.

I still think of myself as a stage actor. When I do film and television I try to implement what I was taught to do in theatre, to try to stretch into characters that are far from myself.

People often ask me, was it hard to play this person or that person? Well, no, not really. Acting is what I do. It's my job.

In acting, you draw so much on your private life.

I went through this realization that acting, at its heart, is the ability to manipulate your own emotions.

I think good acting is always character acting.

What I like is the acting itself. But I'm a lousy celebrity. I'm not interested in selling my private life. I take my private feelings to the work, but I want there to be a difference between me and whoever it is I'm playing.

You can't perish because of your own feelings; you have to embrace those things as an actor because it's part of your palette.

Any decent actor knows you can't judge the character you're playing.

When I see an emotion being enacted by a great actor, I always feel I can never do that.

You never know the depth of an actor.

There's lots of incredible roles out there that I'd love to tackle, but there's a select group of actors I find myself gravitating towards, like Philip Seymour Hoffman or Sean Penn or Daniel Day-Lewis - real transformational actors.

The worst acting is about imitation.

You see some of these actors, they have a permanent smile on their face. How can they do that? It really fascinates me.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

It's not a pleasure torturing actors, although some of them enjoy it.

If you catch me saying 'I am a serious actor', I beg you to slap me.

I try to steal from the best. Suck it all in. 'Taxi Driver' is really a bible for film actors, a master class. A lot of emotional power, a lot of emotional depth but it's contained and you just see the tip of the iceberg.

It's true I have a hard time with the notion of creating a character. And I feel it's a limit. I'm always really impressed by actors who are able to construct a character, like Johnny Depp.

I guess I was an early method actress. I would go to a quiet part of the sound stage with my mother. I wouldn't think of anything sad, I would just make my mind a blank. In a minute I could cry.