David Thewlis Quotes

I don't sit around and study the pages of a script over and over again.

Personally, I need to learn every word on the page before I go in and audition. I have not mastered the skill of holding pages in my hand and acting with pages in my hand. I find that every time I have to look at the page it takes me completely out of the scene.

My process is I try to learn my lines so they're so solid I don't have to think about them or how I'm going to say them.

I've always had a process that I do before I even get to set or go to the location. I work privately, and it almost feels like therapy between me and who I'm playing. So I have this inner life that's there and it gives me a confidence, too, that when I'm playing the role I know every question.

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

As an actor, you're lucky if you get a month before a project starts. There are times when you get a day before a project starts. So to be able to really sit and inhabit that mind and the story is really beneficial, and it really helps for me to be able to then compartmentalize as we're shooting and detach and go somewhere else.

I'm not the kind of actor that would know what my character had for breakfast last Tuesday.

It's very good for me to remember what actors go through.

During the shoot, when you're not at work, you're learning lines for the next shoot, and that can be all-consuming.

I don't think I do that much to prepare for roles in general.

The play is on top of me all the time, and I am constantly thinking about it. Even when I leave the theatre, I'll mumble the lines to myself or think about the way the character walks or holds himself.

I don't really rehearse, because I don't really step into action until I'm forced to. The only way I prepare is just by memorizing it backward and forward so that when I get in the room, I can become the character and not think about the lines so much.

I'm a lazy actor, lazier than you would think. I don't usually do a lot of research.

Every actor prepares a scene in their own way. For me, it's about understanding the scenario, the room I'm going to be working in, the obstacles in and around the frame, etc.

I was not nervous while making 'Nazar' because I was well prepared. I took three months to prepare. When I went on the sets, I knew what I was doing.

My strength lies in prepping. I'm not someone who can just walk onto the set and perform.

All that acting and all that stuff and emoting and crap will come after you know what you're doing. So when you get - when I get on stage, I don't have to think about it.

I didn't have to audition. That's common, but it had never happened to me before. Normally, I hate auditioning. I need to stew and think... let the character develop and grow inside me.

For me, I've always been one that reads a script and has been ready, wiling and able to go out and fight for parts.

This acting was very hard work.

I used to joke I was a point-and-click actor. My whole process has been about trusting your instincts and hitting your mark.

When you're acting in a scene, you're focused on doing the scene. You can't break character and go, 'Oh my God, I love what you're doing!'

I tend not to have any references to anything. I just jump into the script in front of me. If you reference too much, you have no idea if the performances are right.

What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.

The hardest part of acting is not when I'm acting, It's when I'm not.