Michael Rooker Quotes

Once I'm on set, the only thing I'm really interested in is being in the room. Being present. And trusting that what I've done is sufficient, and I'm also trusting that I've also left room for magic.

I love just being in the moment, and the most present I feel in my work is with theatre.

I think a lot about the editing of the films when we're making them, partly because I studied that, and partly because if you think about being in love while you're supposed to be acting in love, there's nowhere to go. You have to focus on something else and then do what's being asked, and you might get some semblance of something interesting.

To play well the scenes in which we are 'on' concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.

A wonderful acting teacher I love, Josh Pais, has a system I love for being in the moment in acting, but also in life. And one of the things he reminds me of is to take a moment and just be here now.

I think is very beneficial to relax yourself so that when you are doing it you are not staggering for lines and your concentration is not on what I am going to say - but the scene itself, the character that you are talking to.

Rigidity is the enemy of acting. And I think that people who stay up all night focusing on every beat they're going to do the next day always end up getting screwed.

She [Susan Lucci] was extraordinary. She wouldn't look at the scene until you walked in to rehearse it. It was amazing to me. That's the impression I got anyway.

One of the joys about acting is researching.

I enjoy making films, but my heart is in the stage. Every night you have to be on. There's no second take.

I want to live every moment totally and intensely. Even when I'm giving an interview or talking to people, that's all that I'm thinking about.

I am not in yesterday; I am not in tomorrow. I am right now.

Sometimes, when you're acting, you are so in the moment that you don't even remember what just happened.

There's a Zen to acting, by being in the moment. That's where the power is.

I'm very, very serious - I'm serious enough not to take myself too seriously. That means I can be completely wedded to the moment. But when I leave that moment, I want to be completely wedded to the next moment.

I try not to think about any of the production side of things. If you do, you tend to get unfocused and distracted. I just try to think about the character and the scene and what I'm doing.

I always try to stay in the moment, in real life and in acting.

Hackman is able to live in the moment which means there is nothing for him at that split second than what is occurring in the scene.

I'm about the present.

When I over-prepare, I try to let it all go and forget all about it when the camera rolls, so I can just be present with the other actors and allow what's going to happen to happen without too much preconception.

If I have an audition, I go to the audition in character. I'm in character when I walk in the room. I mean, I'm still sweet to everyone, but I'm very much the character.

I think my best teacher and my best study was theater in general. It taught me a lot of patience and a lot of hard work, and I think that theater teaches you that you've got to know your stuff because you only get one chance.

A lot of what acting is paying attention.

You prep, you prep, you prep. And on the day that you film, you let all of that go. I try to achieve emptiness as much as possible - the Zen thing - to let the deal come out of that nothing.

I think one of the mistakes actors make is we're so focused on what we're going to say.