Richard Schiff Quotes

You have more creative freedom with writing, in certain ways, because you can create everything that happens. But, as an actor you also have creative freedom because you don't so much focus on what has to move the story along, and only on how your character is reacting to situations.

A lot of actors, whatever movie you're working on, you make up a back story just for your own, to work off, even if the audience doesn't have it revealed to them. I think it's important that the audience makes up their own mind.

As an actor, you think you know your craft, you know the conflicts in your character, but often you don't.

I feel my job as an actor is to explore all sides of humanity.

It's your job as an actor to fill out the blanks. I love doing that. To fill in the bones.

My job as an actress is to make things work and come up with reasons of my own and not just fill in the blanks for anybody else, you know what I mean?

With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life.

I'm not looking to do 'Half Nelson' next, but to play anything that's a little more complex is really fun.

Part of an actor's job is to draw up a back story.

The theoretical casting part of movies is the funnest part. You really can imagine so many different versions of a story based on who's embodying it.

If the entire script feels formulaic, then you know that the film will be like that. But if it's a really interesting script, and the character happens to be formulaic, then maybe there's a way of making them more interesting.

When my career started on daytime soaps, those characters usually didn't have much depth to them. The main goal was to memorize my lines in order to film efficiently the next day. But with 'Jane The Virgin,' the writing is strong, and everything is intentional.

My job as an actor is to just tell the story as best I can from my character's point of view and let the audience decide.

Everything that I am going to do as an actress doesn't matter where it's coming from. It just has to be interesting.

Playing dysfunctional characters or crazy characters is only fun if they're well written. So I have been lucky enough to be asked to play crazy people who are very well written.

Whenever you have a role where you don't get to know anything about the character, you have to invent it yourself. You have to feel like it came from somewhere.

It's down to the actors to show the writers the potential of the character.

As an actor, you create a character from your understanding of what you have heard and your observations. Eventually, every film is an extension of the images that I have seen or what I have heard or read somewhere.

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

I hope to land roles where my presence is carried on throughout the film. I'm looking forward to taking on a role with a complicated backstory and yet someone who refuses to lose sight of hope. I know that it will happen someday.

As an actor, you are in a unique position because you're not only memorizing dialogue but really embodying it. You naturally feel the rhythm of good writing.

I love telling stories. I like the challenges presented to me on a daily basis. There's nothing resting about acting.

The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him.

As actors, we want to choose somebody who has conflicts. I can't be always playing the girl next door. What's the challenge in that?

In the work that I normally do, you have a whole script, a whole arc, that you play. And I do believe a good actor will play every bit of information they're given.