Stephen Henderson Quotes

As actors, we often look for the scene, big moments that say, 'This is why you have to do this role.'

The cool thing about doing a play is that the final interpretation of a piece is turned over to the actors.

For me, all you want from your actor is for them to engage on a deeply emotional level with the material. If you feel like that happens, directing the actors is pretty much done at that point.

I think as a filmmaker and as a director, you shortchange yourself if you inhibit the ability of your actor to bring their own personal experiences to the characters.

Well, it's more of a sane life to be part of an ensemble! I find that the work can be more specific too and I have to really make sure I know where I am in the story because I'm not in every scene.

The most delightful aspect about the language of cinema is that it speaks to each of us in different ways - it is a purely subjective experience.

The way I like to work is to attach personal experiences to what I'm doing, so it helps tremendously if I can write my own play under what the writer has written.

I love when people get songs wrong. I love when people take something from a song that's totally not what I intended!

The whole thing about acting, the draw for me, is the opportunity to do things you don't get to do in real life.

With most of the songs and music that I've composed, irrespective of the myriad videos made, I was always careful not to overly define the experience, leaving room for people to internalize things for themselves, making their experience more integral.

Here's probably a short answer - I never feel in this piece that I'm stepping out and being Andrea Martin. I always feel like I'm Golde, so whatever Golde would do within those realms, that's what I would do.

I know a lot of actors who get a part and then they dissect it and they want to change it and they want to add stuff. I'm always amazed and so impressed by actors who do that.

All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different than what the author put on paper. That's what makes theatre live. That's why it persists.

You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?

I try to really focus on the actors I'm working with and kind of read and respond to their behavior.

Any good production team is going to allow an actor to breathe life into the characters - that's why they hired that woman, that man, whatever the case.

One tries to be an observer as an actor and indeed as a director because the small things, the give-away things are what are really interesting to a performer.

Actors are such wonderful creatures and such wonderful instruments. It's always different on the page or in my head. I hear it differently. I see it differently. And then, you give it to an actor, and it comes alive in a way that you didn't expect.

Many plays - certainly mine - are like blank checks. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.

I have never been one of those actors who say, 'Oh, my character wouldn't do this,' or 'My character never wears an orange shirt,' or any of the number of inane things I've heard on movie sets throughout my career.

I work very hard on motivating everything I do as an actor. Explosive moments have to be completely motivated; whether they're explosive comedy or explosive horror, they have to come organically out of a scene and an interaction with another actor.

Auditioning is so different than doing the work in some ways. It's very much about solving the scene, I think, and coming in with a strong take, but not having it set in stone.

It's part of the actor's job to show up with a head full of steam, to have their own take on this. So that way, you're not relying on, 'OK, tell me how to do it.'

When you play a character, there are choices you have to make about the past, the present, the future, etc. You have to make those choices on your own a lot.

It's strange not to allow the actor some input and breathing room into what was written on the page - it is their job to make it come alive.