Parker Posey Quotes

You have to like the characters you play.

I don't know... I think I'm quite extreme... When I act, I have to immerse myself into the character... otherwise I can't act... In my private life it's the same... I think.

Yet as a director, I don't feel you have to identify with your characters as a requirement to make a movie.

When I do a character, I try to base it on someone I have met or an experience I've had.

Gestating characters feels something like the mental equivalent of gestating a baby. In both cases, to create them you lose yourself. Or at least you reshape yourself to encompass them.

Meisner technique was different than anything I'd ever experienced. It's a really great way to be accountable to your craft and to yourself, but also it takes that kind of focus and dedication to learn anything.

I don't theorize too much. I sort of let the experience sink in, and I have to discover what the character is by doing it, and having those thoughts that she's thinking.

As an actor, I don't really think you find yourself. I mean, once you find yourself, I think it becomes boring and you become set in your ways. I think, as an actor I think it's not a bad thing but more of a gift. It's something you're always doing as an actor. You're adjusting constantly.

The more and more I work with really great actors, the more it's about opening yourself up to what they bring.

One of the reasons I love acting is because I'm so interested in other people's lives, and I often incorporate things I hear or observe into my work. I've become a bit of a 'person addict,' and so I like brushing up against lots of different characters.

I started to see acting as a real science. That really helped me grow as an actor.

One of my main techniques for acting is I try to know almost nothing beyond the words that I have to say, because that's my zone of control.

I would take plays and I would cut out all the other dialogue and make long monologues because I felt the other kids weren't taking it as seriously as I did.

I love to see how a character unfolds off the page in a project. I don't always know how the character is going to turn out, even with the script being there. It's not always clear where that character is going to take me. Or where I will take them.

One of the fun things about being an actor is stepping outside yourself and outside of your own experience. It's challenging yourself to totally commit to something that in your core is so wrong.

A lot of what acting is paying attention.

No, I'm not a very methodologically pure actor.

Whenever I am acting, it's everything, you know. If I'm researching a role, I'm completely consumed in that and, between action and cut, I live in this suspended time.

I never personalize anything because I think that can be dangerous. For me, the best way is - this may sound pretentious - but it's to breathe the character and get into the psychology of it.

When I'm composing a scene for the first time, I try to imitate my character. The less critical distance the better - particularly when they're acting badly.

You get involved with a character after spending a long time waiting, and this demands a lot of energy and concentration.

As an actor, you can't think about the end result or the fame; you just have to focus on the day you're in. You have no control over the finished product, what people will think of it, so all you have is the experience of making it, and you have to stay focused on that.

As much as I know people love the method and what you can draw out of yourself, a lot of acting is very imaginative.

People talk about method actors, meaning someone that's prepared very, very well, or whatever they mean when they talk about it. But the right method is whatever works for you. And what works for me on any given day is going to be different.

When you're playing a character, as an actor or actress, you can't judge them for what they do. You really have to find what is in them that you have compassion for and fall in love with that character, regardless of what they do or how they behave.