Kevin Macdonald Quotes

I learn the techniques and then take what I need. I have the Essie Davis technique of acting. I'm an instinctive actress.

It's not a pleasure torturing actors, although some of them enjoy it.

My mentor Jon Simmons introduced me to the Stanislavski system, which is so heavy on back-story. So you write and write and write these back stories about a character and then you throw it away. So then on set, if it doesn't come, then you didn't do your work.

I like to try to change things up a bit in the way that actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman or Michael Fassbender did and do.

I'm not really into method acting - the way I was taught was the good old-fashioned British way of just doing your research and getting on with it.

I think people are always trying to demystify whatever acting is, so they want to know what your method is.

I gained a lot of confidence after 'IP Man' as being a true actor. I went on to tackle what it is an actor is supposed to do before a film. Do a lot of research, get into the character. That's what I did with 'Dragon.'

I don't personally look to my own life experiences for answers about how to play a scene.

I think some actors are very smart and have the tools. They know how to disconnect themselves from the characters, but I think for a lot of them, it's very difficult.

My favorite kind of acting scenes, or at least where I think people shine the brightest, are odes to Meisner technique scenes where people are face-to-face, and it's almost like a repetition exercise.

I am not into method acting.

Every actor has a method.

I'm not a Method actress. I work in the present, the day-to-day.

I'm not the kind of actor who goes into exhaustive research for each role.

I don't really prepare for roles. I just kind of do them!

Film acting is really the trick of doing moments. You rarely do a take that lasts more than 20 seconds. You really earn your spurs acting onstage. I needed to do that for myself. I would hate to say at the end of everything that I never did a stage play.

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

I'm a technician. I don't go for the get-into-the-role stuff. I read the lines and play the scenes.

As a filmmaker I find it much more rewarding to work with actors who are classically trained. It's about the work and only the work.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

I think the first thing is don't give up. If you love the craft. If you love being a detective and discovering who a character is and the detail of how they walk and what kind of shoes they wear and what did they do yesterday and what's important to them. I definitely advise actors to learn about the craft.

I like to grow as an actor, and you can do that by playing parts that are unfamiliar to you and uncomfortable.

It's hard to get lost in a scene, to get into a character when everyone's standing around you on the set.

You know, I've never been much of a method actor. I feel like, with every project I go in extremely prepared and I like to have a good time.

To be with Derek Jacobi and Stellan Skarsgard, it's a master class in acting every day.