Todd Haynes Quotes

I'm not a method actor; I hope you know that!

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

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

You know, I don't support esoteric approaches to acting.

I consider myself an actor that tries to have as many tools as possible in the bag. And I think that includes the method, then of course it includes some improv techniques, and includes all kinds of different things, because you never know when you're going to have to work on something and in what way.

I am not a method actor, though I studied for a year with Lee Strasburg.

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 try to create as many circumstances outside of set that help me fall into character when I get onto set.

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

I've always approached acting from a very workmanlike perspective.

I don't think I've ever watched a movie to prepare for a role.

You have to be very specific on the technical part of the acting.

I am not a method actor. I would call myself a spontaneous actor.

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.

There are two schools of thought: There are those actors who explain to you that they know exactly how they're going to do the part... And then there is the other method, which is to have no method at all. This is mine.

The best preparation for acting is life - observing life and people and observing yourself. All that becomes your library. So when you have to research a part, a scene or an emotion, you go into the library and get what you need.

I don't really prepare for each role the same way.

I'm not what you'd call a Method actor.

Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.

And at NYU, I went to the Atlantic Theater Company, and they have two main points. One of them is to always be active in something instead of just feeling it. And the other is figuring out your character.

Actors are investigators.

Writing and directing might be a red herring, and really I'm just re-examining what it is to act, to do it well and do it properly.

I'm interested in the acting and staging of specific emotions, and so I work with actors. It's a small proportion of what I do, but it's always what people seem to focus on.

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.