Michael Weatherly Quotes

I like a lot of takes. I just go on until the actors get it right.

Every day on set, there was something to watch and learn.

In theater, you get to rehearse several weeks, you memorize everything, and by the time you open, you know what the play is. In film, it's almost the opposite. You do your work on your own and maybe have a couple of minutes to rehearse. When the camera rolls, you generally don't know what's going to happen.

By the time I got to the Fox studio for my first major film, I knew how to hit a mark. I knew how to memorize lines. I knew how to pay attention.

The last time I was on a small set would've been probably My Left Foot.

My first job ever was on 'Peak Practice.' I just had to walk up the stairs. They kept the take where I slipped slightly, which was annoying.

I left my mark on 'Dark Shadows.' One day I was doing my lines perfectly from Act 3. Everyone else was doing Act 2.

I was delighted to have lines when they came - learning lines for film isn't a problem, but television is a little different, because we shot those shows the whole way through.

Once we got the scene down, we were told to improv.

When you're on set, you have to perform and look the part.

On my first TV job I didn't have a clue. They'd tell me to hit my mark and I had no idea what they meant. You just pick it up. And ultimately, all it's really about is pretending to be someone else.

On film, when you're driving home from the set, you realize what you should have done, but it's too late. When you're taking the subway home from your play, you realize what you did wrong, and you go back the next night and you do it better, or you screw it up again in a different way. It's a different thing altogether.

Normally, when you do a movie, you have those mundane days when it's like, 'Today is the scene where I get coffee.'

Even though I was playing myself on 'NCIS,' it was so cool to see how everything works behind a camera.

Logistically, working on a television show and hitting your mark and leaning to your right and knowing where the camera is - I literally felt like I was on another planet.

When I was shooting 'Okja,' that was my first time actually seeing a trailer for actors.

If I spend 10 days at home, I'll be dying to get back to the set. I love the thrill of a good dialogue, the buzz of shooting.

Because if I don't know my lines, I really don't know what I'm doing.

When they came to you for your line, you had to be ready and you had to get it in one.

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.

When on the set of a film, you have to play natural for entire scenes in a very unnatural environment. You have to express emotions and interact with other actors and also use your voice.

That's the difference between working on film and working in a play. In a play, you work on it, and you live in it and develop it and make it happen.

I try to create an environment where, when we step onto the set, we're all in character.

I'd had the theater background for so long that I know that world inside out; I just didn't know the pace of how a TV set works, like how a show shoots.

Each time that you're playing a character, it's hard to pick a favorite.