Christopher Abbott Quotes

Even when I was in school shows, in elementary school doing plays, I'd always go off book and start improvising.

Work in the theater sharpened my verse and my cinema.

Movies have takes. But plays are like life - you don't really get takes.

I have so much respect for people in the theater. You can't do 10 or 15 takes. It's all live. It's like life in motion.

Theater is the most challenging thing to do. It's just you out there with no rope. You can't call time out; you're on a roller coaster.

I love theater. To have the people onstage right there, to be working in concert with other artists, this is a like a school of fish moving together.

Well, first of all I'll say that I come alive best in theater.

I would rather play Hamlet with no rehearsal than TV golf.

I don't mind doing scripted material. It's actually kind of a relief, because improvising is a little bit like screenwriting on your feet.

I do my best creating on stage.

I'm an actress, and that's my work and my passion.

The theater, for me, has always been a place where I'm free to be more creative, a place to sharpen my tools.

I'm kind of thinking that I might start trying to do some acting. I really enjoy role play.

I want to do more theater, which allows you to take bigger risks and experiment.

I like doing a lot of research, and then you get there, you're in wardrobe, and then you're just reacting to what the other person is doing. The other actor is reacting to what you're doing, and it's this great back and forth. Because you've done all this research, you can use some of it or throw a lot of it out. You can get lost in it.

I have, I think to do a play a year is very good if you can afford the time and the energy because it's difficult to do, it's really the actors medium of course, because you're really out there and nobody's yelling cut so, yeah I have.

To be an actor you have to be a child.

No matter how good you might be in a movie, you'll never be any better. But in a play, I can be better next Tuesday. That's the thrill of it.

I feel like I prefer movies, but, at the same time, theater is so exciting when you're doing it. It's a harder job doing theater.

I kind of went into soap opera with 'General Hospital' in the '80s. It's like theater because every day it's a new script, which really doesn't have a beginning, middle or end like a play or a movie script. So you have to be on your toes and bring it every day. And you have to be spontaneous, which is really how I like to work.

I worked with Marlon Wayans on the show 'They Wayans Brothers,' and we hit it off. One thing about Marlon, when he casts a movie or a TV show, he expects you to bring it. You've got to be ready to improv, because Marlon will say anything, and you've got to be ready to come back.

I am obsessed with improv.

I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.

The theater has kept me alive, and it's allowed me to work at my craft.

Movie making is such a long process, and they only use that one take, although you do it over and over about 30 times. Live theatre is that one time and one time only.