Melanie Laurent Quotes

The best advice my dad ever gave me is that acting is believing. Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

You know, the truth is that us actors would all like to believe we re-invent the wheel, every time we play a character. But, we're human beings and our instruments are not violins, they are our bodies and our consciousness and our collective life experience.

I take my time to get into the mindset of the character and say my lines. I really have to be the person that I am playing.

I've played American characters so many times now, it's so natural to me. But when I play American, I stay in the American accent from the minute I get the job till the minute I wrap.

The closer a part is to you, the harder it is to play. Anything else is just imitation. If I'm playing a Russian countess, I get the hat, the accent, the outrageousness. Easy. Playing a murderess? Perfect.

Weirdly, when I'm playing an English person, I feel like I've got nothing to hang on to, and it feels a bit strange and exposing.

I've played American characters before, so I've naturally become more at ease. Still, there are some American words that I cannot get my tongue around, but if you keep it flowing, you are never too far away from the truth.

There is a lot of myself in every character that I play.

Every character I play is me.

The thing about being an actor is that you're acting. It's not that big of a deal of to play someone different from yourself.

I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played - they're all really far from who I am.

Yeah, I think the common denominator - and this is probably going to sound like Acting 101 - but the common denominator is belief in the character in the moment.

When you are developing a character you have to bring so much of yourself to the role.

Preparation is definitely important, but it depends on the kinds of roles I do. Like, I completely identify with my character in 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.' I had to be myself and I didn't have to actually prepare for it.

Every time you play a bad girl or guy in a movie, you really come from a place of pain.

You have to find out how to become the character.

That's the thing about acting - you can't fake it.

As an actor, if you were to simplify what acting really is, it's about letting go.

With modelling, you provide an image that is fake; with acting you have to provide an image that's real.

A performer needs to feel the part to be the part!

What I love to do requires portraying different characters, and you have to separate your life from the role.

If I were to play somebody who ran a fish and chip shop, I would not work in a fish and chip shop for three months. Staring at chips is not going to help me in my performance.

In my work, I want to convince people that I'm that character. If they know everything about Lesley Manville - private life, all of that stuff - it doesn't help. So the kind of anonymity I enjoy is key.

An actor is someone who pretends to be somebody else. A movie star is somebody who pretends that somebody else is them.

In acting, you have to pull from real-life situations, from people, to help develop a character.