Joyce DeWitt Quotes

The last thing a director needs is an actress who feels an ownership towards a particular character.

Everything feels so personal when you're an actor because you're so open and vulnerable, and you have to trust your director to guide you to where the storytelling needs to go.

I don't think I had a script on 'King Kong.' But usually you read a script and then you go and audition for it. It's rare when there's no script. I sort of like the latter better, because I'm more successful at it.

For most of my career, I've played roles that were written for other actresses.

My only job as an actor is to try and understand the character and, to the best of my ability, bring this character to life.

I had done my first picture and I didn't have anything to do for awhile. I was asked to come back to New York and do Bus Stop in the role of the cowboy opposite Kim Stanley.

I think the most important thing for an actor is reading the script and trying to figure out if you can play that character well. The last thing on my mind is if the director made good movies previously. It's not my job to know if that director's last movie was any good - it's my job to know if I can play the role.

What really makes it fun for an actor is when the script is good.

I feel that once you go into rehearsal, you need to focus on the show in the room.

I'm always envious of the actors who get to come to work every day and really grow deep roots there, but it is really fun playing lots of different characters.

Working on a play is a vibrant and collaborative business. Everyone from the choreographer to the music director to the director to the writers work together toward the same goal, and everyone chimes in on everything.

When I saw 'Legally Blonde' on Broadway, I rang my agent and said 'I want to be seen for this,' but the rest weren't big choices, really. 'Hedda Gabler' was a phone call offering it to me, and as I've said before quite embarrassingly, I didn't know the play, so I didn't sit there thinking 'I would now like to tackle Ibsen.'

When I shoot, I try to feel the body and the face and the weight of the actor, because the character until that moment is only in the pages of the script. And very often, I pull from the life of my actors. I'm always curious about what these characters and these actors are hiding about their lives.

I'd just love to have an audience and it's the most fun in the world to get a new script every week and have the audience come in, and work with those actors.

Acting is a mysterious process.

So what's so enticing about doing a play is that you get to do that thing that got you into acting in the first place... There's a real attraction to being able to play, to just play. And that's something that theater affords you.

I'm definitely one of those actresses who comes to a set knowing how I want to do a scene, and I definitely love input from my directors and my writers.

As an actor, I love working with directors. As much as I love working with other actors.

I have only one rule in acting - trust the director and give him heart and soul.

If you're not acting, you're not an actor.

I like the timeframe involved in being an actor.

I never planned to win an Oscar. When I auditioned for 'Ray,' I was just thinking about what a great project it would be.

One of the great perks of being an actor is you're only as smart as the job you're in, you know, and you're only as informed as the job you're in, and you do become an expert, and you read all the books, but then there's a part of, like, you move on.

I want to show audiences I can act.

Everyone thinks acting is easy. It's far from easy, but it's the most gratifying thing I do.