Zoe Saldana Quotes

I am fairly physically aware and agile, and I imbue that into the characters I play.

Actors only have our bodies, voices, and the text. So I think actors need to have a fit and in-tune body. I was always very disciplined in wanting to have that. That's one of my favorite things - playing a role with a physical requirement.

When you dance intensely, you are really aware of your physicality, and that's always great to have as a tool, when you're an actress.

The mind's first step to self-awareness must be through the body.

Yoga teaches you how to listen to your body.

I'm very kinesthetic, and when you're that way, you just feel it in your body. I know that other actors think with the logical part of their brain, but I wear my character inside my body, even when I'm away from the set.

Breathing is always key in any character. When you have a character with no voice, that makes it even more important.

You have an awareness of your body and how to use it and I think that if you can embody a character physically it's another really useful tool.

Actors always start with the voice and language. That's wrong. They should start with the body. The body is an actor's most important resource.

I did a masterclass at the Juilliard and asked the students, 'Can you stand?' 'Sure.' 'Can you walk?' 'Sure.' They couldn't. They had never really thought about it.

Maybe it's a personality thing individual to me, but actors always benefit from body awareness.

I think yoga gives me awareness not just about my body from the outside but also about my internal organs. I feel it's very important because it teaches you self-realization of your body.

I give myself a Pilates/yoga hybrid mat class almost every day. I also continue to take ballet classes. Both of these practices help me to be aware of my body, my center, and how I move, both with my physical space and my mental space.

Really good acting is not about dialogue. It's really just about small moments that really make the whole entire scene and the intention completely different than even maybe what the characters are saying. Two characters could be saying, "I hate you, and I don't want to be with you anymore!" But yet somehow, their toes are just inching more, you know, closer to each other. So a really big thing about acting is really just with your body.

Most of the great practitioners of the art of acting know exactly what they're doing; even in the best, most successful moments, when they let go of the awareness of what they are doing, they still, somewhere deep inside their body, know what they're doing. There is a craft.

There's a whole language to movement and how you embody someone, and how you can use different techniques for different characters. I guess just posture, and the way you walk, and the way you physically are. All of that says a lot about who someone is.

Ironically, we are all too often educated out of rather than in to an awareness of the body.

What dancing has helped me with is blocking; it makes me comfortable with my body. You know how to hit your mark, you know how to embody a swagger. But sitting down and looking across the table at another actor and being able to go to battle on screen is nothing to do with singing or dancing.

The body is an instrument which only gives off music when it is used as a body.

I do use my body a lot, to click into a character.

You can do yoga and be thinking about going shopping. The goal is kind of like meditation, is to be totally present in your body in the moment. That's when the most profound effects of yoga can happen. That's what I urge people to try to do. It's very important to be in your body.

You can be Eastern or Burmese or what have you, but the function of the body and the awareness of the body results in dance and you become a dancer, not just a human being.

I just think the whole mindset of Pilates is huge. Pilates 101 is just to use your core in the right way. A lot of us don't use every little detailed muscle in our core. We all use the big muscles in our body and don't focus on the little ones. That mindset and awareness is huge. I take that with me wherever I go.

I find that once you find the sound and voice of this character you're playing, everything else follows. It comes right out of the fingertips eventually - the physicality, the gestures, the walk - for me.

Attention to the human body brings healing and regeneration. Through awareness of the body we remember who we really are.